Children’s Hospital open for business with new protocols

Panama’s  Children’s Hospital (Hospital del Niño), plans to re-open care in the Specialized External Consultation Service on Monday, August 10, and has re-engineered facilities and rules to guarantee physical distance, to reduce crowding and minimize the chain of infections of  the covid-19 virus.

The service will prioritize the specialties with the highest demand and, 10 of the 32 medical specialties will be offered, including neurology, dermatology, hematology, cardiology, endocrinology, neonatology, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, orthopedics and infectology.

The staff of the Health Statistics and Records Service will be responsible for reassigning the appointments, of each patient by phone, and will call 48 hours before to confirm the appointment and ensure that they have not had contact with a COVID-19 patient nor have suspicious symptoms. In the case of presenting those situations, a new appointment will be rescheduled within a waiting period of not less than 20 days, the hospital reported.

The hospital has enabled the telephone lines so that new patients can coordinate their appointments and clarify the doubts of parents regarding the monitoring of their child’s care. The protocol includes certain preventive measures that those who attend an appointment must comply with: attend on time, only one family member or companion per patient will be allowed, new patients must call to coordinate their appointment and when going to the hospital they must bring the medical reference, the use of a mask is mandatory except for children under two years, the consumption of food and beverages is prohibited.

Within the Hospital, measures have been established to guarantee hygiene, including liquid soap or alcohol gel and paper towels in the doctors’ and health services offices

Alcoholic gel dispensers will be located in the Waiting, entrance of the corridors, and reception. Sanitary and administrative staff will be reinforced with biosecurity measures regarding hand cleaning, use of a mask, equipment disinfection and waste management, among others.