Clin Asst Prof See visits Mr Wong Kai Tow for a check-up as he recovers at home, as part of the COVID@Home by CGH initiative.
With CGH coming onboard the national Mobile Inpatient Care-at-Home (MIC@Home) pilot in May this year, more patients will be able to receive hospital-type care in the comfort of their home. Under this model, known as CGH@Home, the hospital’s multi-disciplinary care team manages medical specialties such as General Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Cardiology Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Orthopaedic Surgery and Post-Operative Surgical Care.
The benefits brought about by CGH@Home have been felt across a multitude of patients with various conditions. Suitable patients can receive home-based medical attention with round-the-clock access to care delivered by a team of healthcare professionals, until they are deemed fit for discharge.
The CGH care team — comprising specialists and community nurses, as well as third-party medical services partners — provides clinical care such as intravenous treatment, blood tests, wound dressing, supplemental oxygen and remote monitoring of vital signs, similar to the care they would receive in the hospital. Home visits and teleconsultations for the home-based patients are arranged on a per-needs basis by their medical teamlets.
CGH@Home’s lead clinician, Clinical Assistant Professor See Qin Yong, Consultant, Department of Care and Health Integration, CGH, says, “Many patients, especially seniors, prefer CGH@Home because essentially, it allows them to go home and recuperate in a familiar environment. They are not always comfortable with the hospital environment and often prefer to be in the comfort of their own home, in their own beds, eating their regular meals, and recovering with their family members around. CGH@Home enables this while providing quality patient care and medical attention.”
CGH@Home also embraces technology in the monitoring of vital signs. Patients can share their vital signs data via wearable medical devices. This information is automatically transmitted into a CGH dashboard, and sends alerts to the care team in a timely manner. Patients can also connect easily with the care team through video consultations via app-based programmes.
The CGH@Home care team checks on patients during home visits.
For seniors who stay alone, self-care can be challenging at times. CGH community nurses are key to the programme as they help patients recover well and manage activities of daily living. They are highly experienced and trained in managing a wide range of medical conditions, and work closely with community partners to ensure continuity of care for patients in the community.
Providing flexible care during the COVID-19 pandemic
CGH is no stranger to providing hospital quality care for patients at home. During the pandemic, CGH launched COVID@Home by CGH, a flexible model of ready mobilisation where the home-based care model could be activated and deactivated based on evolving healthcare needs. This helped to better utilise the healthcare manpower resources during the pandemic.
One such patient who benefitted from CGH’s programme is 96-year-old Mr Wong Kai Tow, who successfully recovered from COVID-19 at home. In 2022, Mr Wong was discharged from CGH following a hernia surgery. CGH community nurses continued to provide follow-up care to Mr Wong after his discharge. During a home visit, Mr Wong exhibited severe flu-like symptoms and a swab test was carried out, which confirmed his COVID-19 infection. Due to his comorbidities, age, frailty, and discomfort in unfamiliar settings, Mr Wong was enrolled into COVID@Home by CGH to allow him access to medical attention and treatment at home.
His caregiver and daughter, Mdm Wong Ching Hsia, 70, welcomed the initiative. “Due to my father’s old age, as well as his dementia condition and forgetfulness, he tends to develop a temper when he needs to be hospitalised,” said Mdm Wong, who also spends her time caring for her own young grandchildren. “Moreover, he suffers from mobility issues, and going to and from the hospital for check-ups can be difficult for us. By having the option to recover at home, my father felt more comfortable during his recuperation because everyone around is familiar to him, especially our domestic helper, who is by his side at all time.”
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