The Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC) completed a successful and festive EINC launch last August 18, 2011. It was attended by Mayor Japal Guiani, SOCCSKSARGEN CHD Director Dumama and ARMM DOH Secretary Dr. Sinolinding’s representatives, Medical Director Dr. Yambao, Dr. Mansilla, Dr. Macalawan together with CRMC’s nursing staff. The walls of their dedicated EINC corner have been permanently painted with Unang Yakap colors. The Unang Yakap logo was made ubiquitous by rendering onto labels that were stuck to water bottles, hand disinfectant containers, tissue holder, ballpens, and Unang Yakap kits. To cap it off, cupcakes with the UY logo were served together with scrumptious food. The highlight of the event was Mayor Guiani’s speech, in which he committed to issue an Executive Order implementing EINC in the barangays.
Meanwhile CRMC continues to make inspiring progress in the implementation of EINC, maintaining >95% performance of the four core steps of EINC in all deliveries as of the month of July. In addition to this, 98% of patients have already been delivering in a semi-upright position and 100% use of antenatal steroids for eligible patients is being observed. Equally impressive are the percentage of patients allowed to eat/drink and have companions of choice, from 40% in June to 95.8%. Likewise, not a single case of fundal pressure was reported for a month since a department policy has been issued to that effect.
Improvements in Pediatric practices have also been reported with the performance of EINC steps even in tachypneic but vigorous newborns as properly timed cord clamping is now being observed prior to separation for additional respiratory support. Commendable too are the breastfeeding advocacy strategies done by the team at the Outpatient Department and wards. As result of the nursing staff ‘s effort to continue developing plans on improving sterility, asepsis and handwashing practices in critical areas of the hospital, steady decrease of sepsis rates have been observed with only 1 reported preterm death due to sepsis. Total mortality rate is very low at 2.9% and the ultimate low sepsis rate at 0.7% was achieved for the month of July.
And still, some challenges remain—such as pushing for more discriminating criteria for NICU admission as there are still cases of newborn being admitted just for “observation” without any true medical indication; improvements in timely referral system as well as increasing access to antenatal and prenatal care in CRMC’s catchment areas; and lastly intervention in the high cases of post-partum hemorrhage due to inappropriate use of methergine.
All, in all, CRMC is on its way to improving maternal and infant healthcare with the committed work it has put into making EINC the new standard of care. What with Mrs. Nimia Juanday’s very comprehensive MNCHN EINC HPC Action Plan, activities to further strengthen EINC and MBFHI protocols have been set all the way to January 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment