Introduction: Isolation and border control measures, with home quarantine measures, are essential to stem the spread of the newly emergent novel Covid-19. Such measures are doomed to fail if reliant on traditional isolation methods, which entail small numbers of overworked healthcare staff screening and surveilling large numbers of well individuals who are potential false positives. Innovative method employed by Hospital UMS to overcome these logistics difficulties. Methods: A total of 440 returning China students to UMS were planned for home quarantine measures for 14 days. In the intervening 14 days, groups of ten quarantined individuals were assigned to 1 Manda- rin-speaking medical student liaison officer (LO). LOs performed assessment toolkit for 14 consecutive days virtually via WhatsApp and WeChat and reported back to NCOV central command if any symptoms ensued. Results: 45 China students have been put on home quarantine. Two (2) students with symptoms were monitored virtually till resolution of symptoms. Also, five (5) students with uncontactable phone numbers required tracking down, using var- ious methods eg: retrieval from close contacts through wide-bore virtual search. No cases so far have been positive for NCOV or have required referral to tertiary hospitals. Qualitatively, such methods are a vital public health inter- vention, as task shifting happens to semi-professionals. Hospital UMS first trial of two cherished founding principles: community-based rather than healthcare-facility center healthcare delivery, and judicious use of digital health com- munications, applications, and rudimentary telemedicine. Conclusion: Student-led virtual telemedicine and digital health delivery has potential in public health crises like NCOV, freeing frontline healthcare staff to devote energies to their specialties of screening and treatment. Integration of video and biometrics to incorporate true telemedicine, allowing individuals to be “hospitalized” in a community setting in situations of low risk.
Introduction: Continuous quality improvement of system is essential to improve efficiency of working environ- ment. Limited financial allocation in low resource setting results in the vicious circle of having inadequate money to purchase a new system and print paper documents that are required for the operation of clinic. A staff-initiated system improvement with the name of “PRW UMS Staff Portal” was attempted to break-free from the vicious cycle. Methods: An online system covering different aspects of routine clinical work of healthcare workers was created in Dec 2019 and implemented in Feb 2020 using Google SiteTM by the nurses of a local university community clinic, which included: submission of daily reports of nurses and assistant medical officers, submission of reports of all programmes conducted by the clinic, surveillance of health status of working staffs, announcement and request of working roster, archiving of documents, and medication inventory. The system could only be accessed using official working email for general documents while accesses to sensitive documents were restricted to relevant staffs to pro- tect privacy and confidentiality of information. Qualitative interviews were performed with all nursing staff involved. Results: Qualitative feeling of improvement in coordination of workflow was reported by all 23 staffs working in the clinic in view of the easy access of system using smartphone and computer at workstation. It also reduced the need to move away from the working station in order to access, replenish, or submit the printed documents and reports. Significant amount of paper and printing were saved monthly. Conclusions: Despite positive feedback from the staffs, the system requires further improvement in terms of function and security. Further evaluation on cost-efficiency of the system can be done to promote the system to other universities.
Introduction: Crisis communication is an important skill for healthcare professionals, especially during disaster peri- od including the current 2019-nCoV pandemic. Nevertheless, the skill of crisis communication is not commonly an integral part of Malaysian nursing diploma and degree course. Methods: A half days session on how to communicate in the context of crisis was incorporated into an experiential learning workshop to 25 existing and newly recruited nurses together with 7 other healthcare professionals. The topics of nature of disaster, disease outbreak, preparation for disaster, principles and responsibility of crisis communication, preparing statement for press conference, and corporate communication were covered through brief lecture, round table discussion and tabletop simulations. Real time example of 2019-nCoV crisis communication was used to illustrate the skills required in the situation. Results: All participants confirmed that this was the first exposure to hands-on training on crisis communication and enlightening although majority of them were uncertain that they are capable to perform it during the crisis despite the ongoing 2019-nCoV issue in view of their the position that they are holding. Most nursing curriculums focus on clinical theory and clinical skill competency acquisition without addressing the need of learning how to commu- nicate beyond clinical setting in the situation of disaster and panic, which is mostly learned at job. The limitation included the practice in tabletop simulations might not be immediately translatable into real life practice. Conclu- sion: Regular reinforcement through more workshops and incorporation into disaster may potentially be a solution to improve the competency of healthcare professionals in crisis communication. Further assessment on the practice of the participants in performing crisis communication is needed to ensure the competency level has been achieved and to evaluate the efficiency of the workshop delivery method.