COVID-19 NEWS

One Hospital Command Center reports 90% success rate

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reported that the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC), a health care referral network linked with service providers such as hospitals, quarantine facilities, and medical transportation, has successfully closed 2,202 out of 2,447 cases to date, indicating a 90 percent success rate in its ability to quickly connect Filipinos needing medical attention.

Part of the nation’s response to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), or the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-TreatReintegrate framework, the OHCC is a centralized system that Filipinos can call prior to seeking medical assistance so that they are guaranteed a slot at an available and appropriate healthcare facility.

“The high success rate in closing cases is also attributed to the increasing Covid-19 bed capacities in different hospitals and facilities across the country, with the OHCC ensuring that the demand for beds and facilities is appropriately and adequately met,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said. work with hospitals and health facilities to meet the prescribed Covid-19 bed allocation of 30 percent for public beds and 20 percent for private beds asset by Administrative Order 2020-0016.

“According to the latest health system capacity report as of September 6, there was an overall increase in the number of dedicated beds from 20,620 last September 2 to 20,888 on September 6,” he added.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire said the government through the help of local governments will build OHCC in different regions.

“Magkakaroon narin po tayo ng ganitong center sa iba’t-ibang region

natin to coordinate our referral system sa ating overall response. Sa bawat hakbang laban sa Covid-19, patuloy po nating bibigyan ng emphasis ang people-centered care (We will have this kind of center in different regions to coordinate our referral system for our overall response. In every step of our fight against Covid-19, we will continue to give emphasis on the people-center care),” Vergerie said in a media forum.

Vergeire added that the OHCC was created not only to help provide patients with quicker access to medical services, but also to help relieve the burden on the health care system by ensuring that cases are referred to facilities where there is still capacity.

She noted that it will help prevent overloading of hospitals, as well as healthcare workers.

According to OHCC Operations Manager, Dr. Bernadett Velasco, OHCC provides patients with 24/7 access to healthcare referral through its off-site center.

Agents at that command center are able to check availability of medical staff at the different healthcare facilities in the network, and can even check for available beds at both private and private hospitals as well as the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMF) through the DOH’s bed tracker.

It takes about three to five minutes for an agent to gather information from 44

a stable patient, including symptoms, location, Covid-19 status, and whether the patient prefers to be admitted to a private or public health center.

Callers are then given feedback on how to proceed to an available facility, and in the case that they need assistance with transportation, the OHCC also helps arrange transportation through one of the partners, such as Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine Red Cross, and the local government units.

For emergency cases that require urgent attention, Velasco said patients are usually transported to a facility within the day.

“Unti-unti po nating ini-improve ang ating serbisyo sa One Hospital Command Center at unti-unti rin po tayo naga-augment ng mga manpower natin dahil kailangan po natin sila i-train para sumagot ng mga medical inquiries at mag-facilitate pong coordination to different facilities (Let us gradually improve our services at One Hospital Command Center and slowly augment our manpower because we need to train them how to answer medical inquiries and facilitate coordination to different facilities,” Velasco said.

The center can be accessed in three different ways: by downloading the free Pure Force Citizens application, through the dedicated hotlines;02-886-505-00,0915-777-7777 and 0919-977-3333, and by scanning its Quick Response (QR) code. (DOH PR)