City sees uptick in telemed calls to home quarantined patients
As the city’s number of home isolated patients due to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) continues to increase, more are also benefiting from the city government’s free telemedicine digital platform, ‘Bantay Covid’. Health Services Office (HSO) chief Dr. Rowena Galpo said that as of January 24, the Summer Capital has 2,238 home quarantined patients as compared to 1,923 last week.
In the virtual management committee meeting of local officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Jan. 25, she said there was an uptick of registered telemedicine users at 48 as compared to 33 last week.
Galpo said the number of calls by volunteer health workers to patients rose more than two-fold to 121 from only 53 last week.
She said the volume of calls will increase further as they continue to encourage more volunteer doctors and other health professionals to join the telemedicine platform that aims to link the former with home-quarantined patients.
Volunteer medical practitioners may register at www.telemedicine.baguio.gov.ph
City epidemiology and surveillance chief Dr. Donnabel Tubera Panes said these are the Telemedicine step-by-step process for volunteers: 1. Register for an account and wait for its approval. Once approved, an activation link will be sent to your email;2. Activate your account and login your account credentials. You will be redirected to your telemed dashboard; 3. Click the Start Telemed button to start a teleconsultation. The system will randomly generate a patient for you to contact and evaluate; 4. Call and evaluate the patient based on the health indicators (checklist) listed in the system; 5. Submit your patient’s evaluation and you will be redirected to your telemed dashboard; and 6. Click the Start Telemed button to start a teleconsultation again.
She is advising the public to email at healthserviceoffice@yahoo.com for more details on the telemedicine program.
Earlier, the Mayor said the program was based on a Quezon City model and modified to fit the needs of Baguio’s residents and spearheaded by the Health Services Office in collaboration with the City Mayor’s Office’s Management Information and Technology Division and the Baguio-Benguet Medical Society.
He said the system will allow those who are under home quarantine to interact with doctors and feel the concern of the local government and will also act as a monitoring device that will check on their progress and gather appropriate data.
The Mayor said since the city lacks adequate isolation and quarantine facilities to handle the expected surge in cases due to the Omicron variant, home quarantine is being maximized for those with asymptomatic, mild or moderate cases. – Gaby B. Keith
