Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan WS, Lam PYW, Wong MC
Affiliation :
Department of Clinical Oncology, Tuen Mun Hospital, New Territories West Cluster, HKSAR
Introduction :
From late 2019 to December 2022, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health has recorded about 2 million COVID-positive case. It is observed that COVID-19 is a highly contagious among population.
In order to prevent any potential threat of COVID-19 spreading in general ward, especially in oncology with immune-compromised patient, admission screening was necessary in TMH, especially for symptomatic patient, was started in 2020. This group of patient was admitted to surveillance ward previously. However, for better continuity of care and logistic flow, specialty ward like oncology ward A9 applied the mode of “Surveillance Cubicle”. It allowed symptomatic patient to receive a more direct and proper care while being screened for COVID-19.
Objectives :
• To introduce Surveillance cubicle to nursing and supporting staff, collect staff feedback on new arrangement
• Prepare hardware for implementing surveillance cubicle
• Arrange training for nursing and supporting staff on NPS saving/ equipment disinfection
Methodology :
From 3Q 2021 to 4Q 2021, a workgroup was formed for the implementation of surveillance cubicle in A9. With the support from TMH NSD, essential hardware was provided for the surveillance cubicle to be set up. Though at the beginning, nurses and supporting staff expressed worries over “potential threats in directly facing COVID patient”. Reassurance was given with proper training before implementation. An explanative session on the workflow on surveillance cubicle was also conducted to further reduce any uncertainty and unclear point from staff.
1. A workgroup was set up to discuss the feasibility of surveillance cubicle in A9 with NSD with site visit done.
2. Introduce the idea of surveillance cubicle to staff and collect feedback.
3. Estimation of hardware need and its application.
4. Discussion among supervisors and workgroup for proper workflow.
5. Arrange training of staff in NPS taking and equipment disinfection
6. Signage, stretcher and patient notice etc. was prepared.
7. Surveillance cubicle was implemented in 4Q 2021
8. Feedback was collected from nurses and supporting staff
Result & Outcome :
After implementation of surveillance cubicle in A9, staff was competent to deal with admission of symptomatic patient smooth in a standardized flow to prevent spread of COVID in specialty ward.
