The playbook demonstrates how supervised home-based care models can help bring limited healthcare resources together to lower the burden on healthcare systems
Deloitte has announced that it is making available a playbook, to help district administrations address the rising threat of the Omicron COVID variant. The protocols outlined in the playbook can enable governments to quickly scale the health care support and resources required to address surges in COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) cases. This ‘plug and play’ model recommends supervised home-based care that communities can easily adopt to assist those who are medically able to recover at home.
The playbook builds upon the learnings gained from NITI Aayog, “Sanjeevani Pariyojana”, a supervised, virtual home care initiative launched in Karnal, Haryana, India in May 2021 as well as Deloitte’s experience in South Africa. It is designed and supported by Deloitte, the Public Health Foundation of India and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Haryana.
Punit Renjen, Deloitte Global CEO said, “The Deloitte playbook helps bring supervised healthcare to people at home, thereby ‘extending the medical ward.’ When implemented, it brings much needed medical care and resources to rural, under-served and hard to reach communities. This ‘fit-for-purpose’ approach will yield a model that enables broader health equity with access to critical health resources. I am convinced that wider adoption of the model will address a long-term healthcare challenges at reduced costs. This is true for India and the world.”
This home-based care model is a five-point initiative which is able to deliver:
- Integrated command and control centre supplemented by tracking systems and digital facilities. It will provide real-time situational analysis, manage prevention and detection measures in addition to the management of scarce resources such as beds, oxygen, and medical professionals.
- Virtual health, a tele-health monitoring system, to support citizens with any potential escalations after exhibiting symptoms. It is managed by carefully selected, extensively trained, and clinically supervised volunteers who operate under a strict protocol for identifying symptoms, monitoring patients in home isolation, and referring licensed doctors to the patients in need.
- Tiered medical infrastructure to enable effective utilisation of all tiers, starting from frontline health workers to tertiary care hospitals in an equitable and effective manner in the event of a pandemic surge.
- Outreach, communication, and education to empower people with the right information at the right time through the right medium and a message that prompts positive action.
- Scale and replication of best practices and lessons learnt across geographies to manage emerging health priorities.