IntroductionEffective implementation of standard precautions specific to COVID-19 is a challenge for hospitals within the existing constraints of time and resources.AimTo rapidly design and operationalise personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing areas required for a COVID-19 care facility.MethodsLiterature review was done to identify all issues pertaining to donning and doffing in terms of Donabedian’s structure, process and outcome. Training on donning and doffing was given to hospital staff. Donning and doffing mock drills were held. 5S was used as a tool to set up donning and doffing areas. Instances of donning and doffing were observed for protocol deviations and errors. Plan–do–study–act cycles were conducted every alternate day for 4 weeks. The initiative was reported using Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) guidelines.ResultsBest practices in donning and doffing were described. Our study recommends a minimum area of 16 m2 each for donning and doffing rooms. Verbally assisted doffing was found most useful than visual prompts.DiscussionChallenges included sustaining the structure and process of donning and doffing, varied supplies of PPE which altered sequencing of donning and/or doffing, and training non-healthcare workers such as plumbers, electricians and drivers who were required during emergencies in the facility.ConclusionOur study used evidence-based literature and quality improvement (QI) tools to design and operationalise donning and doffing areas with focus on people, task and environment. Our QI will enable healthcare facilities to rapidly prototype donning and doffing areas in a systematic way.

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Hospital Supportive Services complement the clinical services in any setting. They have a crucial role in mitigation of infection and delivery of safe care to the patients. The spectrum of hospital supportive services encompasses linen & laundry, dietary, Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD), transport hospital stores, mortuary and engineering services. Each of these services has a significant role to help abort the ‘chain of transmission’ of COVID-19 infection across various patient care areas in the hospital, while providing them supportive services. The overall patient satisfaction greatly depends on the quality of hospital supportive services rendered to him during his stay. These Services usually work at the back end but their contribution in the overall care of a patient is no where less than that of the clinical services.

Background & objectives:Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) increase the length of stay in the hospital and consequently costs as reported from studies done in developed countries. The current study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of HAIs on length of stay and costs of health care in children admitted to Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of a tertiary care hospital in north India.Methods:This prospective study was done in the seven bedded PICU of a large multi-specialty tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India. A total of 20 children with HAI (cases) and 35 children without HAI (controls), admitted to the PICU during the study period (January 2012 to June 2012), were matched for gender, age, and average severity of illness score. Each patient's length of stay was obtained prospectively. Costs of healthcare were estimated according to traditional and time driven activity based costing methods approach.Results:The median extra length of PICU stay for children with HAI (cases), compared with children with no HAI (controls), was seven days (IQR 3-16). The mean total costs of patients with and without HAI were 2,04,787 (US$ 3,413) and 56,587 (US$ 943), respectively and the mean difference in the total cost between cases and controls was 1,48,200 (95% CI 55,716 to 2,40,685, P<0.01).Interpretation & conclusions:This study highlights the effect of HAI on costs for PICU patients, especially costs due to prolongation of hospital stay, and suggests the need to develop effective strategies for prevention of HAI to reduce costs of health care.

Aims:There is limited literature on the outcome of care in intensive care units (ICUs), especially when it comes to neonatal surgical units. Hence, this study was aimed to observe the outcome of care provided in the neonatal surgery ICU (NSICU) at an apex tertiary care teaching institute of North India.Methods:A descriptive, observational study was carried out through retrospective medical record analysis of all the patients admitted in NSICU from January to June 2011.Results:In NSICU, from January to June 2011, 85 patients were admitted. More than two-third (69.9%) patients were admitted through the emergency department. Of the total admitted patients, 69.9% were male. Mean and median age of the admitted patients were 6.31 and 2 days (range 0–153 days), respectively. The most common diagnosis was esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula (36.1%). Within a day of admission at NSICU, 88% patients underwent surgical intervention. Of the total admitted patients, 56.6% required mechanical ventilation with 3.57 days (range 0–31 days) of mean duration of mechanical ventilation. Reintubation rate (within 48 h of extubation) was observed to be 15.7%, and 27.7% (23) of the patients required vasopressor support during their NSICU stay. Patients who developed postoperative complications were 34.25%, with the most common being wound infection/discharge/dehiscence. Two patients were readmitted within 72 h of their discharge/transfer out from the NSICU.Conclusion:NSICU survival rate was 85.5% and net death rate was observed to be 14.5%. Sepsis was the major reason for mortality in NSICU.

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Context:PET/CT scan service is one of the capital intensive and revenue-generating centres of a tertiary care hospital. The cost associated with the provisioning of PET services is dependent upon the unit costs of the resources consumed.Aims:The study aims to determine the cost of providing PET/CT Scan services in a hospital.Methods and Material:This descriptive and observational study was conducted in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at a tertiary apex teaching hospital in New Delhi, India in the year 2014-15. Traditional costing methodology was used for calculating the unit cost of PET/CT scan service. The cost was calculated under two heads that is capital and operating cost. Annualized cost of capital assets was calculated using methodology prescribed by WHO and operating costs was taken on an actual basis.Results:Average number of PET/CT scan performed in a day is 30. The annual cost of providing PET/CT scan services was calculated to be 65,311,719 Indian Rupees (INR) (US$ 1,020,496), while the unit cost of PET scan was calculated to be 9625.92 INR (US$ 150). 3/4th cost was spent on machinery and equipment (75.3%) followed by healthcare personnel (11.37%), electricity (5%), consumables and supplies (4%) engineering maintenance (3.24%), building, furniture and HVAC capital cost (0.76%), and manifold cost (0.05%). Of the total cost, 76% was capital cost while the remaining was operating cost.Conclusions:Total cost for establishing PET/CT scan facility with cyclotron and chemistry module and PET/CT scan without cyclotron and chemistry module was calculated to be INR 610,873,517 (US$9944899) and 226,745,158 (US$3542893), respectively. (US$ 1=INR 64)