How will you convert a college hostel to COVID-19 Isolation unit/hospital?

Posted on 27 Jul 2022

How will you convert a college hostel to COVID-19 Isolation unit/hospital?

What is required to convert a college hostel to a COVID-19 isolation unit/ hospital? What guidelines should be followed? In this article hospaccx healthcare consultancy has mentioned all the requirements and guidelines to convert the college hostel to COVID-19 isolation unit/ hospital.

Introduction:

COVID-19 has truly caused havoc around the world by causing more than 21 lakh deaths all across the globe within 5 months. The worst countries which are affected by the pandemic are Italy, the USA, Spain, and other European countries. The healthcare industry is growing at a very faster pace, owing to its strengthening coverage, services, and increasing expenditure by public as well as private players.

With the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases and less availability of hospital beds, the officials are quickly weighing options to prepare multiple building types of conversions into temporary patient care facilities to offload low acuity health system demand. Thousands of hostels, stadiums, government guest houses and other buildings need to be converted into makeshift hospitals amid a looming threat of community transmission that could see India facing a sudden spike in coronavirus cases.

In a move to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, with the increased number of the patient the hospital is running out of the availability of a bed, so the states in India have decided to convert a college hostel into the make-shifts hospital to treat a patient suffering from the contagious infection. As a bid to prepare for mass quarantine in the run to contain the pandemic, stadiums all over are being converted into isolation wards.

Quarantine refers to separation of individuals who are not yet ill but have been exposed to COVID-19 and therefore have a potential to become ill. In India the migrants are been now taken to their respective home towns, after reaching their home town they will be kept into 14days of quarantine. There will be voluntary home quarantine or government setup quarantine facilities of contacts of suspect /confirmed cases. So the state can convert the college hostels to quarantine facility, as it may be running out of the hospital beds. To convert the college hostel to COVID-19 isolation unit it may take up to 3-4 days and to convert it into proper hospital it may take up to 10-12 days. Every major city will need 2.5 ICU beds per 10,000 adults.

Isolation refers to separation of individuals who are ill and suspected or confirmed of COVID-19. All suspect cases detected in the containment/buffer zones (till a diagnosis is made), will be hospitalized and kept in isolation in a designated facility till such time they are tested negative. Persons testing positive for COVID-19 will remain to be hospitalized till such time 3 of their samples are tested negative as per MoHFW’s discharge policy. About 15% of the patients are likely to develop pneumonia, 5 % of whom requires ventilator management.

Hence dedicated Intensive care beds need to be identified earmarked. Some among them may progress to multi organ failure and hence critical care facility/ dialysis facility/ and Salvage therapy [Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenator (ECMO)] facility for managing the respiratory/renal complications/ multi-organ failure shall be required. If such facilities are not available in the containment zone, nearest tertiary care facility in Government / private sector needs to be identified, that becomes a part of the micro-plan. There are various modalities of isolating a patient. Ideally, patients can be isolated in individual isolation rooms or negative pressure rooms with 12 or more air-changes per hour.

Nosocomial infection in the fellow patients and attending healthcare personnel are well documented within the current COVID-19 outbreak also. There shall be strict adherence to Infection prevention control practices in the converted college hostel to health facilities. The designated college hostel converted to isolation unit/ hospital will ensure that all healthcare staff is trained in washing of hands, respiratory etiquettes, donning/doffing & proper disposal of PPEs and bio-medical waste management. At all times doctors, nurses and Para-medics working in the clinical areas will wear three layered surgical mask and gloves. Environmental cleaning should be done twice daily and consist of damp dusting and floor mopping with Lysol or other phenol disinfectants and cleaning of surfaces with sodium hypochlorite solution.

Setting up an isolation unit in college hostel:

An isolation facility aims to regulate the airflow within the room in order that the amount of airborne infectious particles is reduced to a level that ensures cross-infection of people within a Isolation unit is very unlikely.

The college hostel shall be dividing into different zones. With colored map
Red color indicates critical zone
Yellow color indicates severe cases
Post signages on the door indicating that the space is an isolation area.
COVID-19 patients should be housed in single rooms.
However, if sufficient single rooms are not available, beds could be put with a spatial separation of at least 1 meter (3 feet) from one another.
The access to isolation ward should be through dedicated guarded stairs.
Place appropriate waste bags in a bin. If possible, use a touch-free bin. Ensure that used (i.e. dirty) bins remain inside the isolation rooms.
Place a puncture-proof container for sharps disposal inside the isolation room/area and bio-medical waste should be managed as per the BMWM guidelines.
Ensure adequate room ventilation. A negative pressure in isolation rooms is desirable for patients requiring incubation & suction procedures.
If air-conditioning is not available negative pressure could also be created through putting up 3-4 exhaust fans driving air out of the room.
Place a container outside the door for the disinfected equipments.
Hand sanitizers needs to be placed in each corridor of the college hostel.
Avoid the utilization of same equipments; sterilize the equipment before using it for others.
Ensure regular cleaning and disinfecting of the touch areas and the common areas.
Ensure that the visitors in the isolation unit are strictly restricted.
Generators for emergency electricity backup
Bathrooms must be build for the patients. As they may be quarantined for about a more then 3 weeks.

Setting up college hostel into a complete COVID-19 hospital:

The college hospital converted to a hospital needs to have the department like ICU, Isolation ward, BMWM and housekeeping department.
ICU should be equipped with ventilators and the bedside monitors. So that the critical patient will be under observation for 24hr.
Proper way findings with the florescent colored needs to be put up. Florescent color as in they can be seen in low light condition.
The converted hospital needs to be equipped with the designated portable X-ray & portable ultrasound equipment.
The healthcare staff needs to be well trained with the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
The reception or office area of the college hostel needs to be converted to the registration area or administration desk.
Ensure regular cleaning and proper disinfection of common areas, and adequate hand hygiene by patients, visitors and care givers. Keep adequate equipment required for cleaning or disinfection inside the isolation room or area, and ensure scrupulous daily cleaning of the isolation room or area.
Visitors should be strictly restricted in the converted hospital.
The flooring needs to be transformed into vinyl flooring, as vinyl coated flooring may help in reduction of infection. The toilets need to have proper cleaning and sanitization supplies.
IV stands and alcohol based hand rub sanitizer needs to be setup near each bed. Medical masks need to be provided to the patients, as it may help to protect self and others too. Each bed must consist of a bed side table and a bin to throw the waste.
There should be double door entry with changing room and nursing station. Enough PPE should be available in the changing room with waste disposal bins to collect used PPEs. Used PPEs should be disposed as per the BMWM guidelines.
Place a puncture-proof container for sharps disposal inside the isolation room/area and bio-medical waste should be managed as per the BMWM guidelines. Appropriate clinical wastage bags.
Standard protocols for hand hygiene need to be educated to the patients. The protocols can be displayed by putting up on the wall.
Standard operating protocols needs to be followed by each and every healthcare staff.
Any patient-care equipment that is required for use by other patients should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before use.
To control the spread or transmission of infection to others the Infection control committee should be formed. The infection control committee has the authority to plan, monitor and update infection control policies and procedures.
A proper checklist needs to be maintained and monitor strictly the flow of work.
Place appropriate waste bags in a bin. If possible, use a touch-free bin. Ensure that used bins remain inside the isolation rooms.
A paramedic team can be setup with the Ambulance facility for the covid-19 patient.
An over-bed table or a tray for patients, so that the patient can eat or do any kind of other activity comfortably.

Conclusion:

The concept of converting college hostel in COVID-19 isolation unit / hospital can help in the shortage of availability of hospital beds. In pandemic situation like COVID-19 this concept of converting the hostel to a covid-19 isolation unit / hospital during the shortage of hospital beds can be developed. The college hostel needs to be setup in a housing structure, so that it gives the feel of house to the patients. This study concludes that in the pandemic situation and shortage of hospital beds this type of concept of converting the non healthcare organization is appreciated. This study is done according to the guidelines of converting the non-healthcare facilities.

It is the superficial and macro level study for more details kindly contact Hospaccx Healthcare business consulting Pvt. ltd on hospaccx.india@gmail.com Or you can visit our website on https://hospaccxconsulting.com/