Karnataka engages health consortium to provide remote home isolation monitoring services

New Delhi: The Karnataka government on Sunday said it has conducted a meeting with Swasth, a non-profit consortium of healthcare partners, to discuss its proposal for implementing a system to monitor home isolation for asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic COVID patients.

The Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare Services issued a work order on July 17 for Swasth to work with the state to implement a 10-day care package through service providers for patients isolating at home for an initial period of one month.This package will include daily monitoring of patients by healthcare professionals, and periodic check-ins by doctors.

As more patients with non-serious COVID-19 symptoms are being advised to isolate at home to ensure the availability of beds and resources for severely-ill patients, the system is intended to prevent the spread of the disease and ensure adequate care for patients in home isolation, the department said.

The package will also feature the provision of home healthcare and safety guidelines to patients and caregivers, as well as linkages to emergency support in case of escalation of symptoms. Health authorities will inspect patients’ homes to ensure their consent, the feasibility of home isolation program and then upload these patient details and medical history to the Swasth platform.

Swasth will then forward these patient details to service providers who will ‘onboard’ the patient, allocate a nurse/healthcare professional and doctor to the patient and orient the patient and caregiver on safety measures to maintain for the patient and family during the home isolation period, said the release.

A daily consolidated report of patients with the number of patients on active care, the number of patients discharged, and the health status of the patients and families, will be shared with the state.