There is a group of special patients, for whom, weekly hemodialysis on regular basis is the crux to subsist their lives. During the pandemics, there were daily increasing therapeutic needs in the hemodialysis rooms of Shanghai General People’s Hospital in both the South Campus and North Campus, and the risks were self-evident. Apart from opening special hemodialysis channel for common disease patients, the Hospital also set up “Emergency Hemodialysis Room” and “One-stop Hemodialysis Services Room for Isolation Wards” for patients of lockdown areas/isolation sites, which became a relay for life for the patients receiving hemodialysis treatment. Since the 1st day of April, the hemodialysis team of the Shanghai General People’s Hospital has served up to 7000 cases/times of hemodialysis patients of all types, with the hemodialysis services greatly assured.
For relay of kidney life of the patients, here, in just 16 hours, an emergency hemodialysis room is built and put into service!
Inside the emergency hemodialysis room located at the 1st floor of outpatients building of Hongkou, several sets of dialyzers are working routinely, and the other ends of the machines are connecting to several patients who are urgent for hemodialysis. “In just 16 hours, we have set up the urgent hemodialysis room, which could hold up to 8 patients at the same time, thus achieving whole-course separation from other disease patients.” as told by Chen Lei, matron of the hemodialysis room in the North Campus. At receiving the urgent notice on March 30, the Hospital had moved immediately, to build emergency hemodialysis rooms, with well-planned treatment zone, storehouse, patients passage, medical staff passage, buffer zone (initial discharge & final discharge), and equipped with full-range UV scanner, locker mirror, and first-aid equipment including oxygen supply, rescue carriage, defibrillator, etc. “Also, we consult especially the hospital infection management specialists who ever provided assistance to Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital, the first makeshift hospital in China launched when the pandemics broke out, to ensure effective zoning of the whole hospital area, as well as to protect lives of both the patients and medical personnel. At duty hours, “Level 2 plus” protection was implemented for the medical personnel, and for every case and on every shift, a special person was arranged to accompany patient, playing the role as “Angel in White.” Up to now, the emergency hemodialysis room has provided hemodialysis services for dozens of kidney patients who are close contacts or secondary close contacts with Covid-19 virus carrier.
“Since occurrence of the pandemics, we have, at the first opportunity, increased the duty shifts/frequency by adopting “12h/6d” work shift system. Our team has been working continuously over one month in the first-aid hemodialysis room, emergency hemodialysis room, and the ward building, for the purpose of reviving kidney of the patients.” In addition, the North Campus Hemodialysis Team also establishes via WeChat terminal the on-line “Hemodialysis Service Charity School of the Shanghai General People’s Hospital”. Adopting school management system, the online charity school aims at strengthening the propaganda and education on, and timely communications between student (patient) and head teacher (medical worker) via online liaisons, to help mitigate the long-lasting “home-stay anxiety” of the hemodialysis recipients. “I am anytime ready to serve you, so long you are my patient.” is the most frequent words of Chen Lei said to her patients.
The around-the-clock work plus “one-stop” dialysis services, helping smooth access to life channel
Inside the “one-stop” hemodialysis room in the fever clinic of the Songjiang Campus, Mr. Dai, a kidney patient from lockdown zone is receiving the second time hemodialysis within one week. “In order to ensure timely dialysis for isolated patients in lockdown zones, we open separately two ‘one-stop’ hemodialysis room in the fever clinic and isolated wards respectively for kidney patients of close contact, secondary close contact with Covid-19 virus carrier, and for kidney patient from lockdown zones, where, the patients can access to one-stop services for whole process from reception, triage, epidemic survey, and registration to the therapy, further reducing the probability of crossed waiting and clustering inside the fever clinic. ” as told by Jiang Yanhua, matron of hemodialysis room of the South Campus. Every kidney patient for hemodialysis transported to this Hospital will, after being diagnosed and assessed by doctor, be prescribed an individual hemodialysis plan. Due to the even complex hemodialysis treatments for the patients in the fever clinic and the isolation wards, five senior nurses were dispatched by the South Campus Hemodialysis Team to reside in the fever clinic and the isolation wards.
To ensure the Hospital’s shelter management during the pandemics, the Hospital had, at the early period of Covid-19 pandemics, sorted out diverse therapeutic approaches including impatient hemodialysis, outpatient hemodialysis, emergent hemodialysis of lockdown zone patient, emergent dialysis, critical patient dialysis treatment, etc., and formulated six emergency plans for hemodialysis patient treatment and management. “We are working at our full capacity and on an around-the-clock basis, to ensure that every patient could be timely treated.” Jiang Yanhua, matron of the South Campus Hemodialysis Room says. Despite the heavy therapeutic pressure, every one of us is holding on to his/her post day after day, and attending to lifeline of the patients by their earnest actions and sweat.
Consisting of 48 people, this “kidney caretaker” team is reinforcing the fortress against the Covid-19 pandemics with their genuine responsibility and devotion.
