Dr Rupa Mitra, Medical Director, Central Hospital, South Eastern Railway and Dr Anjana Malhotra, Addl Chief Health Director, South Eastern Railway, Burn Intensive Care Unit – Initiative at Central Hospital presented a case study on the strategies utilised by Central Hospital to improve operational efficiency and patient satisfaction. Dr Mitra began by briefing the audience about the overall functioning of the railway hospitals in India. She informed that the railways has 17 zones and each zone has a referral zone. Central Hospital, South Eastern Railway is one among these zone and is a premium tertiary care centre. The centre is a referral hospital for the zone but a referral hospital for, Eastern-Metro, North East Frontier and East Coast railways. The hospital specialises in burns, plastic surgery, onco-surgery, nephrology, cochlear implants and ophthalmology.
After giving a brief on the services that the centre provides she mentioned the vision of the hospitals that speaks of continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction. She further spoke on how the hospital has embarked upon achieving its goals for quality and patient satisfaction in the last three years. She said, “ In the last three years, we have set-up a state-of-the-art burns unit, introduced three modular operation theatre and set-up a modernised surgical ICU. In the pipeline are proper central sterile supply department, 12-bedded medical unit and revamping of the medical gas pipeline of the hospital so that the we can maintain quality and that every bed in the hospital will have a oxygen suction airway. We have also come with an antibiotic policy for the hospital.
Dr Malhotra, further, spoke on their specialised burn unit and how it has become a differentiator for the railway hospital. She said that in India most of the burn patients have to go to government hospitals and very sadly there are few government hospitals that specialise in its treatment. Therefore, burn management is an important area of focus in public health, she informed.
Dr Malhotra, shared information on how they have set-up state-of-the-art burns unit. “We have being trying to spread awareness on the fact that when a person experiences burns, the first thing that needs to be done is to pour water on the burn area and not cover with a blanket.”
At their hospital they have set-up a hydrotherapy centre which becomes the first step towards treatment. Then they ensure that patients receive a non-crystalline silver dressing which can be used for around 72 hours. This reduces the cost of treatment as well as provides high quality infection free dressing. She then urged the audience to opt for re-burn wound excision for better burns management and to reduce mortality.
At the end, she shared the outcomes of these improvements done by the hospital after upgrading the these facilities.