Video cameras, turnstiles, entrance guard, electronic system for registering phone calls and even an own emergencies dispatcher’s office. For a year already, the National Clinical Hospital has been ‘a difficult to besiege’ building. The security-related reforms initiated at the start of 2016 dissatisfied the visitors at first, but the administration said the changes that occurred are for everyone’s benefit.
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Vasile Popovich, head of the National Clinical Hospital’s security service, said that anyone had free access to the hospital until 2016. The ambulatory traders sold goods even in patient wards. There were numerous cases of thefts of personal belongings and medical equipment. The doctors became the target of attacks. The building, personnel and patients had to be thus secured.
The security system was designed and set up gradually. It has been a year since then, but work is yet to be done on it. Access to the hospital is based on permits for personnel and on patient lists. The intention is to also introduce electronic cards and bracelets.
Restricted program of visits
The hospital’s internal regulations are aimed at limiting the visitors’ access. The patients in a serious state, after difficult surgery, can be visited without restrictions of time. Those who are confined to bed can be visited between 2pm and 8pm, according to lists presented daily by division heads to the Operational Bureau. The patients who can move go down to the first floor or go out to see their relatives, with the permission of the doctor or nurse on duty.
The patients who come with referrals from family doctors are first consulted by specialists of the hospital’s policlinic, who decide if hospitalization is needed or not. If the patient wants to be consulted by a doctor of the hospital on his own initiative, this must get the doctor’s consent and pay for consultation at the pay desks located on the first floor of the institution. “If you want a consultation with a particular doctor, you get the phone number form the information desk and, if the doctor accepts to see you, he informs the guard about this. Based on the receipt showing that you paid for the consultation, you can go to the doctor’s office,” the head of the hospital’s guard explained.
The flow of people after the turnstile was set up decreased considerably, from 2,500-3,000 to 500-700 a day. But this does not mean that fewer people benefit from the hospital’s services, said Vasile Popovich. “Earlier, the person who needed a consultation came with four-five relatives and all stayed near the door of the doctor’s office. The number of patients didn’t decrease. Only the number of persons who accompanied sick people to the hospital declined,” he stated.
Own department for emergencies
A department for emergencies at a public hospital in Moldova is definitely a novelty. In the case of the National Clinical Hospital, this department’s role is to act as an intermediary between the medical divisions and technical services.
“Earlier, any emergency that appeared in the hospital – a fire, failure in the power system or bursting of a water pipe – involved the doctor, who had to decide how to act. Now the division head or managing nurse calls the dispatcher’s office and this finds the person who deals with the emergency,” stated Vasile Popovich.
The department for emergencies also electronically records phone calls, including those by which information is passed on to the responsible persons. The dispatcher’s office later compiles a report on how the communicated problem was solved.
Vasile Popovich said about 40,000 lei from the hospital’s budget has been invested in the security system so far. The turnstiles and reception desk cost the most. The costs now include the remuneration of the guards.
Order to step up security measures
The stepping up of security measures at health facilities is stipulated in an order issued by the Ministry of Health at the end of 2016. To combat acts of violence against medical personnel, the public health facilities should take a number of security measures, including to separate the flow of people, to limit the unauthorized vehicles’ access to the institution’s territory, to introduce guard at risk points and to internally regulate and strictly obey the patient visit programs.
“The order of the Ministry of Health is under implementation. The health facilities must yet do work in this regard. The goal is to have Emergency Admission Units at each medical institution by this yearend. Owing to these units that will be based on the first floor, the flow of patients will be divided into patients in a serious state and those who can yet wait,” said Stela Cheptene, press officer of the Ministry of Health.
The practice of the National Clinical Hospital is being borrowed by the Oncological Institute, where turnstiles for organizing the flow of patients and visitors have been already set up.
Sabina Rebeja, IPN
