Odisha Govt Caps Treatment Costs For COVID-19 Patients In Private Hospitals

Bhubaneswar: In view of the present scenario of COVID-19 positive cases, the state government has come up with a set of guidelines to be followed strictly by the private hospitals having 30 beds or more for treatment of the coronavirus affected patients.

In an official notification, the Health and Family Welfare department stated that the state government has created many Dedicated Covid Care Centers (DCCC), Dedicated Covid Health Center (DCHC) and Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCH) to take care of mild symptomatic, moderate and severe cases.

But, considering the present scenario of positive cases, the state will need more number of Dedicated Covid Health Center and Dedicated Covid Hospitals. In order to manage the situation, the private hospitals with 30 beds or more have to abide by the following guidelines:

• All asymptomatic or mild cases shall be sent to institutional quarantine/home
  isolation or any paid CCC run by the private hospital.
• All the private hospitals having 30 beds or more shall designate minimum of 10% of all beds to be reserved for the COVID patients with an option to convert the entire hospital as a COVID hospital. However, they have to intimate the Collectors and DM of the district concerned and the State level authorised officer for data updating. They have to appoint one Authorised Medical Officer who will coordinate with state authorities.
• Such reserved beds must include appropriate numbers of ICU beds with ventilators dedicated for COVID patients. (At the rate of 10% of all available beds).
• There must be a separate fever clinic and facility for isolation of suspected cases.
  When the suspected cases come out to be positive they shall be shifted to the COVID beds provided the patient wants to take the services of hospital on payment of fees.
• Only those patients who want to pay on their own or covered under their own
  insurance shall be treated in the hospital. No reimbursement or payment of any kind towards treatment of such patient will be made by the government.
• The hospital must provide all possible treatment as per the guidelines for
  management of COVID-19 patients issued by the Ministry of Health.
• As the COVID patients usually have high anxiety, they must be handled very gently and proper and regular counseling shall be done regarding the status of disease and the outcome of treatment.
• Adequate number of the consumables like Oxygen, ppEs, Sanitizers, etc must be
  made available.
• The Infection prevention & control measures must be taken as per Govt. of India
  guidelines so that the infection never spreads to the other non-COVID patients.
• The staff managing the patients shall take utmost care and preventive
  measures so that they themselves do not contract the disease. They will work for 14 days and go for quarantine for another 14 days after which they can again come back to patient duty.
• All the tests must be done at the approved rate notified by the government.
• The hospital will charge reasonable fees from patients and refrain from collecting
  exorbitant fees, failing which strict action will be taken against the hospital.

• The institution will develop mechanism for collection of bill amount on a dav to dav basis so that a lump sum amount never remains pending.
• Dead body disposal shall be done as per the state and Central government guidelines.
• All patients’ data shall be uploaded in the designated portal or social media group in the appropriate format.
• The hospital shall regularly share all information to the government regarding availability of facility, patient information, line of treatment, availability of beds, price charges etc.
• The hospital shall provide the COVID-19 test result to the patient.
• The hospital shall allow one willing attendant of the patient to remain in the earmarked place on the hospital premises while ensuring prevention of cross infection.
• The hospital shall create a help desk accessible physically and telephonically for
  counselling the relatives of patients and share information on status of health to
  attendant of the patient regularly.
• The hospital shall put CCTV in the patient treatment area for management, facilitation and screening of footage by appropriate authority as and when required.