KIMSHEALTH wins 4 CAHO prizes for COVID-19 best practices

Our Correspondent

KIMSHEALTH, a world-class multispecialty hospital based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has won four national-level prizes for videos depicting the best COVID-19 management practices, in a competition organised by The Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO).

CAHO is a common platform that facilitates communication amongst the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and the Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited healthcare organisations across India to share best practices, provide benchmarking and continuously improve the quality and safety of healthcare services provided by these organizations in collaboration with all stakeholders.

Against stiff competition, KIMSHEALTH emerged winner in categories such as Doffing of PPE, Managing Patients in Prone, Cleaning of Instruments and Sample Collection from a suspected COVID Patient.

Donning and doffing of PPE depicted how the special garb creates a barrier between the individual and the germs. This helps prevent the spread of germs and protects people and healthcare workers from infections. Donning and doffing of PPE is always a matter of appropriate knowledge and skill. The wrong way of donning and doffing is as dangerous as encountering the disease without a barrier.

KIMSHEALTH ensures that all its staff coming into contact with suspected/ positive cases wear PPE. All the staff members are trained on the appropriate donning and doffing technique to ensure the safety of all.

SARS-CoV-2 virus primarily affects the respiratory system, although other organ systems may also get hit. Patients can experience a wide range of clinical manifestations, from no symptoms to critical illness. Some may end up in acute hypoxic respiratory failure. The video Managing patients in prone shows how the prone position is employed as one of the supportive management techniques for severely ill patients and how it helps in improving drainage of secretions, gas exchange and alveolar recruitment.

Being a tertiary-quaternary care hospital, KIMSHEALTH accommodates those who are even critically ill and with multiple co-morbidities. The video shows how appropriate prone care along with continuous pulmonary hygiene ensures good patient outcome.

During COVID-19 times, utmost care must be given to cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing medical and surgical instruments to ensure that there is no transmission of pathogens from person to person, as instruments can be the carriers of microorganisms.

The video Cleaning of instruments portrays how ‘safe care’ is KIMSHEALTH motto and how its dedicated Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) ensures meticulous disinfection and sterilization of instruments.

All specimens collected for laboratory investigations should be considered as potentially infectious. Establishing safety management strategies in the specimen collection environment, training of professional nurses, enhancement of personal protection, standardization of methods and processes for swab collection, and a timely and safe sample submission have achieved effective results in reducing infection risk to the nursing staff, which are all depicted in the video Sample collection from a suspected COVID patient. This also helps in improving the standardization of biological specimen collection and ensuring the quality of specimens.

KIMSHEALTH has earmarked a fever clinic for outpatients with facilities for sample collection by well trained professionals adhering to all infection control protocols.

CAHO had organised the online national-level competition to create awareness about implementing safe practices in healthcare delivery during COVID times. Healthcare organizations across India took part in it.