Caring for communicable patients

After 5 months of renovation and delays, Davao Medical Center finally opens its new Communicable Pavilion (CP) ward that caters patients with communicable diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia, hepatitis, rabies and other infections. Patients will truly benefit from this new renovations because it offers more comfortable stay and provides healing environment.

Although as what I have heard that the CP ward will have a centralized oxygen pipe in but to my disappointed it was not installed. Its a disadvantage for the attendants because they have to change oxygen tanks most often. Obviously, the ward takes most oxygen tanks per day because of the nature of the disease. The IMCU room for intubated and toxic patients doesn’t have O2 pipe-in. 5 minutes of hypoxia (low O2 in the blood) can cause permanent brain cell damage so the pipe-in is very important to the patients.

This ward is very special to me because it was my first training at DMC. For me, this is a very exciting ward, there are many things to learn. Caring for patients with dreaded respiratory diseases are one of a kind. You put yourself at risk also because of close contact with them. They are the most neglected patients because they can spread the disease. Often, at home, they have separate eating utensils to prevent transmission.You can really see patients who vomit/spit blood. 

PTB patients still continue to be one of the top admissions at DMC because of poverty despite the free TB DOTS program. 

Despite some stuctural insufficiences in my POV, I know that the staff of CP ward will do its best to care for their patients. DMC nurses are resourceful and proactive. Personal Note: I hope that contractual nurses will also have hazard pays because its not only regular nurses who face communicable patients.