COVID-19 Hospitals Tie-Up With Luxury Hotels
To Provide Beds

COVID-19: Hospitals tie-up with luxury hotels to provide beds

With hospitals staggering under rising COVID-19 caseloads, hotels are acting as step-down care centres, providing additional beds, monitoring doctors and nurses on call

In the second wave of COVID-19 with the increasing caseload, hospitals are collaborating with hotels, both luxury and budget, to provide additional beds and medical care for mild and asymptomatic patients.

But why not home isolation?

Explaining why people may not be confident about home quarantine, Dr P Kuganantham, HOD, Infectious Diseases, and Social Medicine, SIMS Hospital in Chennai, says, “Some COVID-positive patients who are isolating at home due to the lack of beds land up in complications by the seventh or 12th day because they are not able to monitor their CRP (a marker of inflammation in the blood). Early intervention on the third or fourth day, under medical supervision, reduces any chances of such complications.”

This is where isolating at a hotel-turned-COVID care centre comes into play. With doctors, nurses, and ambulances on call 24/7, daily checkups, and blood tests, a sudden deterioration can be detected and treated immediately.

Dr. Aswin Sayiram SJ, COO, SIMS Hospital adds, “Most of them get anxious while at home and then fall sick. Now, even more so, we need such alternatives to work. It reduces the stress on the patient and the progression of the disease to a great extent.”

Care within reach

Ramada Plaza by Wyndham in Guindy now calls itself an extended arm of SIMS hospital. Last year, the hotel was serving doctors who had flown in from across the country to treat patients. But this year, they wished to play a larger part by partnering with the hospital. “In the last one-and-a-half weeks of our efforts, 90% of the patients are on the way to recovery and a good amount of discharges are scheduled to happen soon,” says Sandeep Bhatnagar, general manager.

Keeping in mind the importance of fresh air and sunshine, the hotel opens up its rooftops in the morning and evenings for a quick, supervised stroll. Patients can carry out breathing exercises, light stretches and yoga. “We also have comforting teams, who are solely meant to comfort patients by talking to them and understanding their needs,” adds Sandeep Bhatnagar, general manager. Patients’ food preferences are catered to, by working with a menu developed by hospital dieticians, adds Sandeep.