Coronavirus and Hospitals
How will Georgia-based hospitals act if the coronavirus’ spread comes to a peak in the country?! - EVEX Hospitals Director General Giorgi Mindiashvili has analyzed whether Georgia-based hospitals are ready to withstand the challenges of the pandemic.
"Our six hospitals are ready to receive infected patients if necessary. EVEX Hospitals started preparations 10 days ago, and today the network is fully ready", Giorgi Mindiashvili pointed out.
“At this stage, we do not face such urgency. However, we have prepared a clear plan, and we are ready to adjust our six hospitals for new challenges, to better serve infected patients. I would like to stress that in this situation, it is of vital importance that the private sector and the government work in coordination and support each other. Consequently, we will fulfill our mission without any benefits or business interests, and we will assist the government as long as necessary. We have already prepared six hospitals”, Mindiashvili pointed out.
The company launched medical staff training 2-3 weeks ago, and the process is continued on a 24-hour schedule. The trained staff is ready to manage tests, the isolation of patients, and ensure their transportation to the best hospitals, Mindiashvili explained.
“What’s called “pretriage” was conducted in all hospitals. This will be planned to accommodate the emergency inflow of patients through pretriage, questionnaires or primary diagnosis; the identification of potentially risky patients. If there are such patients, they are separated from the general inflow, and are directed to an isolation box until we get an answer from the laboratory. A negative answer means that treatments will continue as normal, while a positive means that the referral of the patient will go on to the relevant facility.
Today these facilities are – Republican Hospital, Infectious Diseases Hospital, and various state clinics. However, if necessary, our six clinics will also join the referral centers”, Mindiashvili noted, and added that their clinics have enough resources to fully manage the pandemic in the country.
“At this stage, we have about 240 respirators, of which 40-50 are not occupied. Furthermore, we have taken measures in preparation and, two weeks ago, we ordered 30 additional respiratory devices. I can assure you that, based on the current epidemic in the country and based on certain reasonable calculations, I believe these resources are absolutely sufficient”, Giorgi Mindiashvili noted.
If the staff is infected, our six hospitals will be able to replace them with new staff, Mindiashvili added.
The training courses also include risk management skills. This plan means that the staff in contact with infected persons will move to full self-isolation and a new team will replace them. This plan will apply only in emergency departments, Mindiashvili said.
“The training course is carried out in several parts. An emergency department is one of the most important topics, such as the emergency medicine department, urgent assistance department, and the therapy department. I suggest other departments pass a training course in this division. It has not been ruled out that the coronavirus will infect our staff soon. Therefore, it is very important that after the self-isolation of the infected staff, other staff remain in these departments that provide vital services to our citizens. We are ready for such scenarios. If we have such situations like an emergency department with big referral centers, in this case, we have a plan on how to replace the staff. The new staff will completely replace the old one, and I stress that this process will take place in departments which are of vital importance for the country, and that provide continuous services in a particularly critical situation”, Giorgi Mindiashvili told Business Partner.