To preserve hospital capacity and ensure continuity of care, new practical recommendations have been issued, according to a government press release dated November 17.
A new strategy
Faced with the rebound of the coronavirus epidemic, it is important to ensure the proper functioning of the hospital system, in particular to accommodate patients with a severe form of Covid-19. This advice is also intended to avoid delays in the care of other priority patients, who are not infected. The role of city health professionals is becoming decisive in limiting the spread of the virus, relieving hospital services and ensuring continuity of care. In collaboration with the National Professional Councils (CNP), learned societies, the CNUH (National Council for Hospital Emergency) and the ARS, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health has produced a series of recommendations intended for doctors and paramedics. The strategy is to “ reinforce as much as possible the upstream side of the hospital sector as well as its alternatives to avoid any unnecessary hospitalization, in a context of high tension in healthcare establishments ” and ” streamline the follow-up of hospitalized patients between conventional or scheduled stays, critical care in the broad sense (and no longer only in intensive care) and follow-up and rehabilitation care (SRH) “.
The recommendations
The goal of these new organizations is to better distribute “the burden of care between professionals from all sectors, who have been fighting the coronavirus for months”. By considering the opinion of the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) and the Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique (HCSP), new measures are set out, such as:
- extended use of oxygen therapy, outside the hospital, with strict criteria, in order to reduce the length of hospitalization by returning home with respiratory assistance;
- a new organization of critical care with the positioning of Covid intensive care units (ICU Covid), part of the progression of care;
- the provision of educational tools concerning critical care, in particular for nurses and nursing assistants;
- support for tele-expertise, to allow city professionals, health or medico-social establishments, to share their opinion remotely;
- taking into account the ethical dimension, so that healthcare professionals take individual measures adapted to each patient;
All of these recommendations are available on the government website, in the form of infographics.
