Tele_icu in protecting health-care workers and patients from Sars-cov-2 in Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic since March 2020. Since healthcare workers and patients in isolation have a high risk of being infected, hospitals in countries affected by COVID-19 are facing challenges in protecting their healthcare workers to response to the increased demand of health services while maintaining quality of care for their patients. This study described the deployment of a Tele-ICU system in screening process for COVID-19 at Hanoi Medical University Hospital. The screening processes of SARS-CoV-2 for two illustrative cases admitted to the Emergency Department (i.e., one patient received Tele-ICU and the other did not) were described and compared. The screening process with Tele-ICU or without Tele-ICU allowed similar access to specialists but less specialists were exposed to COVID-19 with Tele-ICU using. The study concludes that Tele-ICU could be effective in reducing exposure to COVID-19 for health workers during the pandemic.