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Emergency Response : No more deaths due to delays

Precious minutes could be lost running from hospital to hospital in Mumbai, trying to find Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds or matching blood group when a health emergency strikes. A few minutes can make a difference between life and death in this city. Dr Aparna Hegde, founder of non-profit Armman, who is working on Project HERO (Helpline for Emergency Response Operations), to address these concerns, explains her venture to Maitri Porecha.

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1. What does Project HERO entail?

We are working on the formulation of an online platform that will provide real time data about availability of ICU beds or matching blood group through the click of a mouse. It is a helpline for emergency response operations, that will provide real time updated information about availability of ICU beds and blood in hospitals and blood banks of Mumbai.

2. How many hospitals and blood banks have you managed to incorporate currently?

We are approaching every public and private hospital in Mumbai to convince them to be a part of the project. Currently close to twelve hospitals in Mumbai – BMC-run Sion Hospital, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri West, Surya Hospital in Santacruz, Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri East, Masina Hospital in Byculla, KJ Somaiya Hospital in Chunnabhatti, Shushrusha Hospital in Dadar, Life Care Hospital in Thane, Hira-Mongi Navneet Hospital in Mulund, Nefron Hospital in Mulund, Parel Superspecialty Hospital, Dhanwantary Hospital in Mulund, have come on board and agreed to get empanelled. Patients and their families will be able to access real time data from the empanelled hospitals on the website. Indian Medical Association (IMA) has come on board to partner with us.

3. How will the system of accessing real time data on availability of ICU beds and blood work?

The project will have a dedicated call centre, which will receive a daily update on count of ICU beds and blood units from all hospitals. The nurses on duty in the hospitals will keep a dynamic count of the ICU beds. All the details regarding admission, transfer, discharge or death of patients will be computerised and automated. The blood bank status updation will be conducted by the blood bank officers in the respective hospitals. If there is any change in the status of bed availability and addition or usage of blood units, an alert will be sent to the centralised automated system of Project HERO. The HERO Central database has been developed and is being hosted on a cloud based server. It will store information about every hospital as a combination of dynamic vectors (ICU beds and blood data) and static variables (name, address, contact details and a detailed description of the facilities and staff. The real-time updated information will be disseminated through a helpline number, sms-based auto reply system, website and mobile app.

4. How can patients' relatives use services of Project HERO?

There will be one emergency number to call or SMS and a single website for patients to get information about the nearest hospital with a vacant Intensive Care Unit bed with the required specialty care. You can also locate the closest blood bank with the right amount and type of blood or blood products. By coordinating this information, we envision that HERO will form a critical component of the disaster management system of the city, providing a crucial service during mass emergencies like the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, or during natural disasters like floods or earthquakes. We hope to go online in the next two months time.

5. Are you embarking on a pilot project before launching the platform?

HERO has received approval from the BMC to conduct a pilot project in Sion Hospital, one of the largest tertiary hospital in Mumbai. The admission counter of Sion hospital has been computerised and the hospital personnel have been trained. Bar coded inventory system for the blood bank has been created and is in process of installation.

6. What inspired you to embark upon the project?

Mumbai is full of these small nursing homes where babies are delivered. Critical babies who have health troubles travel all the way from remote corners of the city to public hospitals like Sion, KEM, Nair or JJ, only to be told that no ventilator bed is available. As a student when I was working in the Neurology department at Sion Hospital, a desperate family came and put the baby in the feet of my colleague begging the doctor to get the baby admitted. The encounter made me think of what could be done to avert such a situation. Ten years later, nothing has changed. While Mumbai needs at least 2000 neonatal intensive care unit only 400 are available, mostly in private hospitals. Further, after the 26/11 terror attacks the need for a unified emergency response was further felt and that is how, the vision for Project HERO was born. Mostly, the problem apart from unavailability of ICU beds or blood, is the fragmented isolated operations of hospitals. We are trying to integrate services for betterment of patients.

 

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