TCI Hospital Prepares to Activate ‘Emergencies Only’ Mode

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JOINT PRESS RELEASE FROM TCI GOVERNMENT AND TCI HOSPITAL

(Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Thursday 19 March, 2020):

The Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital wishes to advise the general public that activities to reduce non-essential services have commenced in an effort to divert resources to COVID-19 preparedness and response.

This process will take place over the next several days. The medical team is currently conducting a clinical risk assessment of patient lists and prioritization of care. Patients with affected appointments will be contacted and advised of the next steps.

To facilitate continuity of care, team preparedness and response, several activities are underway. These include the utilization of telemedicine applications to maintain communication with our valued patients due to the eventual reduction of non-essential services.

PREPARDNESS, SERVICE CONTINUITY AND RESPONSE ACTIVITIES

The Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital has initiated several mitigation and preparedness activities since December 2019 in response to the emergence of the novel Coronarvirus (COVID-19) disease in Wuhan, China.

Below is an overview of some of the many key activities that have occurred and are in the advance stages of implementation, monitoring and evaluation:

  • Monitoring of CDC, WHO and PAHO to track the disease progression, emerging and new best practices such as infection prevention and control, environmental decontamination and clinical management;
  • Conducted a review and where indicated, updated our current Infection, Prevention and Control, Emergency and Disaster plans;
  • Daily tracking and monitoring of inventory utilization levels related to personal protective equipment and other essential clinical supplies;
  • Communications and planning activities commenced with the Ministry of Health Agriculture Sports and Human Services;
  • Priority setting related to mitigation and preparedness;
  • Refresher training of all health care workers and ancillary staff both within TCI Hospital, Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Sports and Human Services (MOHASH) and other key government agencies. The training is led by MOHASH Infection Prevention and Control National Focal Point, Nurse Jackurlyn Sutton and instructed by TCI Hospital Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Specialist Nurse Surbrena Pedican and TCI Hospital Clinical Nurse Educator, Lurline Barnett who have also conducted refresher training of all hospital housekeeping and porter staff.
  • Review and updated IPC policies, guidelines and procedures where applicable;
  • Frequent planning, preparedness and strategic response meetings;
  • Development and testing of a COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Hospital plan, guidelines and standard operating procedures;
  • Social media platforms have been used to provide public information on respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene, social distancing and COVID-19 screening questions and reference to the Ministry of Health’s hotline;
  • Signage have been erected to alert persons of the need for hand hygiene before, during and after accessing the facility;
  • Increased environmental surveillance and control measures;
  • Waiting room chairs are separated to promote social distancing between patients;
  • In-hospital television monitors continuously stream information on COVID-19 for patients and staff;
  • Public Health England was engaged and reviewed the hospital’s key policies, laboratory capacity and onsite inspections;
  • Infectious disease specialist has been engaged for advice on our IPC programs, personal protective equipment and care pathways;
  • Where predictable and permissible, based on activity within the emergency department, privacy screens have been erected and are utilized within the department to facilitate a protected patient pathway used only for persons suspected of COVID-19;
  • Telemedicine is utilized to support clinical care and minimize provider exposure consistent with best practices recommended by WHO and PAHO;

Essential health care workers have been instructed to remain on island. TCI Hospital has adopted a work from home strategy along with the use of designated off-hospital work locations for some non-essential employees in anticipation of the advancing pandemic as a component of the hospital’s service continuity plan.

The senior management team wishes to thank the community for their ongoing support and remind the general public of their role in helping the health care team to be successful in the fight against COVID-19. Persons are reminded to execute the following:

  • Avoid large social/public gatherings especially groups of more than 10 persons;
  • Listen to advice and information from approved sources. TCI Government Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Sports and Human Services, CDC, PAHO and WHO is recommended.
  • Wash and Sanitize your hands and work station regularly and practice respiratory etiquette;
  • We strongly encourage the utilization of communication mediums such as phone calls, videoconferences on cell phones or other mobile devices in the interim as a means of personal communication as part of social distancing;
  • Contact your family physician and TCI Government Ministry of Health hotlines if you are concerned about exposure to COVID-19;