THE key to decongesting overcrowded tertiary hospitals is to let the facilities just focus on specialized cases.
This according to Carlito Pillerin administrator of the Davao Regional Hospital (DRH) in Tagum City said that devolving basic and primary health care to other smaller medical facilities can help declog tertiary hospitals.
He cites emergency rooms in tertiary hospitals where some patients have already been staying for 72 hours or three days already.
“In an emergency room patients can only stay there for three to six hours.” Pillerin said. The hospital administrator said that if patients stay for more than 24 hours in the room then it can be considered a ward, no longer an emergency room.
He voiced alarm that tertiary hospitals are fast losing their emergency rooms as many of them become wards with overstaying patients.
Pillerin cited that 30% of births are considered as normal deliveries which can be handled by lying-in clinics. He said that if Southern Philippine Medical Center or SPMC which has a 1,200 bed capacity and 30% of these admitted patients are women giving birth through normal delivery; they can be referred to lying-in facilities.
He said that there are lying-in facilities in the barangays but they are rarely visited since women would prefer to tertiary hospitals.
Also devolving normal deliveries to lying-ins could create economic opportunities for these facilities aside from decongesting hospitals. [PIA 11/RG ALAMA]
