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Getting Back to Work Safely

Getting back to work safely

Aug 29th, 2020

Archive for August, 2020

Getting back to work safely

Saturday, August 29th, 2020

The future of work looks very different than it did just a few months ago. While some will have to continue to work from home others may have resumed office and this may increase the rate of transmission. Exposure can occur in the workplace while commuting to work or during work-related travel. The employees and the organization both will have to find new efficient ways of working while ensuring everyone’s safety. As businesses reopen in the ‘New Normal’, communication and personal hygiene are more important than ever. Clear policies and messages, training, and constant reminders at the organization are required to increase the awareness of the new safety precautions. Following high levels of personal hygiene is also crucial to fight this pandemic.

Workplace safety protocols to be followed
The implementation of safety protocols will limit the exposure to COVID-19 and will, in turn, reduce the rate of transmission at the workplace. Both employers and employees must take utmost precautions to help reduce the spread of the infection. Here are a few guidelines to follow:

For employees:
Here are a few steps that employees can take to protect themselves and others at work:

  • Wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or to use hand sanitizer with at least 70% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
  • Key times for employees to clean their hands include:
    • Before and after work shifts
    • Before and after work breaks
    • After blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing
    • After using the restroom
    • Before lunchtime
    • After putting on, touching, or removing cloth face coverings
  • Avoid using other employee’s phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment.
  • Cover their mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, or use the inside of their elbow. Dispose of these tissues safely in a covered dustbin,
  • Stay home if they are sick and seek medical help if required.
  • Avoid sharing your lunch and eat your lunch in your own workspace.
  • Practice social distancing by avoiding large gatherings and maintaining distance (at least 6 feet) from others.

For the employers
Here are a few steps that employers can take to protect themselves and others at work:

  • Practice routine cleaning and disinfection of premises and frequently touched objects and surfaces such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails, and doorknobs.
  • Call the staff to office in staggered shifts to avoid crowding.
  • Use thermal scanners to monitor the temperature at entrance.
  • Ensure regular supply of hand sanitizers(especially at the entrance), soap, and running water in washrooms.
  • Discourage visitors in the office complex unless absolutely necessary.
  • Encourage meetings via video conferencing.
  • Encourage email correspondence instead of physical copies.
  • Facilitate work from home option whenever required.

Healthy living habits for better immune health
A balanced and nutritious diet and healthy lifestyle choices will help reduce your risk of getting COVID-19. Maintaining a healthy diet contributes to high energy levels, improves your brain function, and helps ward off diseases. A strong immunity helps reduce your risk of getting the infection at your workplace or while you travel. Here is a routine that you can follow to help build a strong natural defence system:

Start your day with a healthy breakfast
Including vegetables like carrot, spinach, sweet potatoes, garlic, dark leafy greens, tomato, and broccoli; and fruits like papaya, oranges and other citrus fruits, that contain vitamins A, C, D, and E, and minerals like magnesium, selenium, and zinc to your daily breakfast routine is the first step to build up a strong defence system.

Get good sleep
A human body naturally repairs and recovers, during sleep, from all the wear and tear. Ensure that you get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep daily.

Stay hydrated
Staying hydrated flushes out all the toxins from the body. Have 8 to 10 glasses of water throughout the day.

Make some time for exercise 
Try exercises like power yoga, skipping, push-ups, jogging on the spot at home.

Practice meditation
A mere 10 minutes of meditation every day can make a big difference. A calm mind helps in better focus and helps strengthen your immunity.

The unlock has begun, the businesses are opening up and the world is getting back to the routine. Make sure you return even stronger and ensure your safety first as you start getting busy in various professional commitments. While attending meetings and finishing other pending tasks do not forget to maintain personal hygiene. Together we can help limit the spread of COVID-19 transmission. Stay safe and healthy as you get back to your workplace.

Kokilaben Hospital: We are your safe space

Thursday, August 20th, 2020

Have you been delaying your regular treatment? Has a family member postponed his/her elective surgery due to COVID? Do you think twice before visiting a doctor for non-COVID problems?

COVID-19 is here to stay for some time, it is time for all of us to accept the “new normal” and access timely medical help as and when required. It is time to live life Above and Beyond COVID-19. Medical care is not a luxury but a necessity of life. Imagine a world without safe access to medical emergency services! This would lead to disastrous results and will cause more harm than COVID-19 itself.

Over the last few months, while India was under complete lockdown medical facilities across the country were overwhelmed with a deluge of coronavirus infections and many patients with non-COVID illnesses struggled to get timely medical care. 

Our team at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital believes that “Your safety is our concern, your health our priority”. We proved this in these testing times and our team continued to work during the lockdown. Our team of healthcare experts has gone beyond their call of duty to ensure that patients receive the best medical care even during the lockdown. Our medical services did not pause in the lockdown. Here is a list of medical care attended to during the lockdown (from 24 March to 30 June):

  • 3100 Chemotherapy sessions
  • 6111 Radiation therapy sessions
  • 408 Cancer surgeries
  • 102 Children’s Heart surgeries
  • 530 Adult cardiac procedures
  • 105 Neurosurgeries
  • 1000 New patients from other parts of India
  • 5 Organ Transplants
  • 2148 Home Blood Collections
  • 1222 complex surgeries
  • 15,280  OPD consultations
  • 7500 Dialysis sessions
  • 5010 Online consultations

We are your safe space

Don’t delay your regular treatment because of the pandemic. Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital follows exhaustive, globally benchmarked safety protocols for screening, disinfection, infection control, and surgery. Here are some steps taken by our hospital to ensure your safety:

Thermal screening at entry:
All employees, visitors, and patients are screened for fever

Infection control

  • Universal masking policy
  • Appropriate and adequate PPE for staff
  • Regular disinfection of hospital floor, surfaces, elevators, and high-touch surfaces
  • FDA-approved hand sanitizers

Complete segregation of COVID testing and treatment areas

Separate
  • Entrance and exit
  • Dedicated ICU, OTs and wards
  • Negative pressure air-handling unit
  • Staff, catering services, laundry, and waste disposal

Comprehensive COVID screening

  • Testing for patients before planned surgery
  • Separate designated waiting area for results to prevent accidental transmission

Social distancing and zero crowding

  • Visiting hours suspended
  • OPD appointments staggered
  • Only one relative per patient in outpatient and inpatient departments

Don’t delay your regular treatment. Reach out to our experts for all your healthcare concerns. Call us on 022-42696969 for Appointments and 022-42699999 for Emergency services. We are your safe space. To find out more visit www.kokilabenhospital.com

Organ Donation: Its importance and process

Thursday, August 13th, 2020

13th August is celebrated every year as Organ Donation Day in India. Organ donation is the harvesting of an individual’s organs after he or she dies for the purpose of transplanting them into another person. The person who gives the organs is called a donor while a person who receives the organ is called a recipient. One brain dead donor can save up to eight lives of people suffering from end-stage organ failures. Donation affects more than donors and recipients. It also affects the families, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who love and support those in need of transplantation, and who benefit from their renewed life and improved health after transplant.

Why India needs to boost “Organ Donation”
The huge gap exists even when an individual can save up to 8 lives. Awareness is the key to increase organ donor ratios in India. Here are a few statistics:

● 500,000 people die because of non-availability of organs
● 200,000 people die of liver disease
● 50,000 people die from heart disease
● 150,000 people await a kidney transplant
● 10,00,000 lakh people suffer from corneal blindness

Organ Donors in India
India remains a country with one of the lowest organ donation rates in the world. The organ donation rates in India are very poor around 0.3/million, as compared to some western countries where it is as high as 36/million, in the US it is around 26/million population.

Organ donation helps in a transplant that often means a second chance at life. Vital organs such as the heart, pancreas, liver, kidneys, and lungs can be transplanted to those whose organs are failing. It allows many recipients to return to a normal lifestyle. For others, a cornea or tissue transplant means the ability to see again or the recovery of mobility and freedom from pain

Who can be a donor?
Everyone can choose to be an organ donor, irrespective of age, caste, religion, community, current or past medical condition. Children can also be organ donors after taking consent for organ donation from their parents.

The Organ Donation process
Even though millions of people have registered to become organ donors, very few donors pass away in a way that allows organ donation. Here are some additional details about the organ donation process:

  1. Registering as a Donor
    The process of donation most often begins with your consent to be a donor by registering your name in the national registry and informing your family. This is the first step to help save potential lives.
  1. Brain Death Testing
    If the patient not responding to treatment and stimuli, doctors will perform a series of tests to determine if brain death has occurred. A patient who is brain dead has no brain activity and cannot breathe on his or her own. Brain death is death and it is irreversible. Only brain dead patients can become potential organ donors.
  1. Authorizing Donation
    The healthcare authorities check if the deceased is registered as a donor on their registry. In India, the family’s consent is mandatory for organ donation and has the final say.
  1. The matching process
    Healthcare specialists determine whether the organ is medically suitable for transplant. A series of tests on various parameters is done to help match an organ to a suitable recipient for transplant.
  1. Recovering the Organs
    After removing the organ, surgeons connect it to a machine that keeps them working artificially. Doctors take utmost care while removing the organs. Most organs have limited life spans as below:
    1. Heart: 4-6 hours
    2. Liver: 12-24 hours
    3. Kidney: 48-72 hours
    4. Heart-Lung: 4-6 hours
    5. Lung: 4-6 hours
  1. Transporting the Organs
    Surgical teams work round the clock to co-ordinate between the retrieved organ and the recipient for a successful transplant. In some cases, a green corridor is created for an organ transplant. It is a demarcated, cleared out special road route created for an ambulance to enable the retrieved organ meant for transplant to reach the destined hospital within the stipulated time.

Take a step closer to helping others. Pledge to donate your organs after you are gone and also inform your family about your decision. Spread the message about Organ Donation. Please find below the link for further details on Organ Donation:

https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/departments/centresofexcellence/centrefor_transplant/organdonation.html

World Breastfeeding Week

Wednesday, August 5th, 2020

1st to 7th August 2020 is celebrated as World Breastfeeding Week. The theme for 2020 is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet”. Breastfeeding provides every child with the best possible start in life. It delivers health, nutritional, and emotional benefits to both children and mothers. And it forms part of a sustainable food system. But while breastfeeding is a natural process, it is not always easy. Mothers need support – both to get started and to sustain breastfeeding.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months for your newborn and continued breastfeeding for two years as a supplement along with other foods. Breast milk has the perfect combination of proteins, fats, vitamins, and carbohydrates. There is nothing better for the health of your baby.

Nutrients in Breast Milk
The following is a brief overview of the components of breast milk and the nutrients they provide for your baby:

  • Proteins
    Human milk contains two types of proteins: whey and casein.  Approximately 60% is whey, while 40% is casein. This balance of the proteins allows for quick and easy digestion. 
  • Fats
    Human milk also contains fats that are essential for the health of your baby.  It is necessary for the brain, retina, and nervous system development.
  • Vitamins
    Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, and pantothenic acid can be found in breast milk at levels that depend on the mother’s diet.
  • Carbohydrates
    Lactose is the primary carbohydrate found in human milk.  It accounts for approximately 40% of the total calories provided by breast milk. Lactose helps to decrease a large number of unhealthy bacteria in the stomach.

Breastfeeding – Benefits for your baby

Know why breast is best for your baby:

Breastfeeding protects your baby
Breast milk is full of live ingredients, including stem cells, white blood cells, and beneficial bacteria, antibodies, enzymes, and hormones, which all help fight infection and prevent disease. Breastfed babies are less likely to suffer from diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, colds, and flu as well as ear and chest infections.

Premature babies
Feeding your baby your milk offers the best protection against potentially fatal conditions including sepsis, chronic lung disease and necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). 

Colostrum: the superfood for your baby
Colostrum the initial thick breast milk is rich in minerals like magnesium; which supports your baby’s heart and bones; and copper and zinc, which help develop their immune system.  

Helps your Baby sleep
Research shows that breastfed and formula-fed babies are just as likely to wake for milk during the night. However, breastfed babies get back to sleep sooner due to oxytocin hormone present in breast milk.

Brain development
Research suggests that children who’d been exclusively breastfed show a much higher cognitive development than children who have not been breastfed.

Benefits for the mother

Helps contract your uterus
When you breastfeed, it causes your body to release oxytocin, a calming chemical sometimes referred to as the “love hormone,” and it helps your uterus to contract back to its regular size.

It can help reduce the risk for PPD
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 10 to 15 percent of new moms and brings feelings of sadness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and trouble bonding with their babies. Breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of Postpartum depression.

It could reduce your cancer risk
When you’re breastfeeding, your hormones are altered and your periods are delayed. This reduces your exposure to oestrogen hormone and lowers your risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Breastfeeding can protect your heart
Women who breastfed for at least four months had 20 to 30 percent lower risks for hypertension and heart disease.

Breastfeeding Myths and Facts

There are many myths and facts associated with breastfeeding especially passed on from elders. Let us bust these myths and facts:

Myth: Many mothers can’t produce enough milk
Fact: Almost all mothers produce the right amount of milk for their babies. Breast milk production is determined by how well the baby latches and the frequency of breastfeeding.

Myth: You shouldn’t breastfeed if you’re sick
Fact: In most illnesses, the mother can continue breastfeeding. Your milk will produce antibodies to pass on to your child to build his or her defenses. 

Myth: You should eat bland food while breastfeeding
Fact: Breastfeeding has no food restrictions. Mothers must follow a healthy well-balanced diet and stay hydrated.

Myth: It’s hard to wean a baby if you breastfeed for more than a year
Fact: There’s no evidence that it is more difficult to stop breastfeeding after one year, but there is evidence that breastfeeding up to two years is beneficial for both mothers and children.

Breastfeeding in India

Only 54.9 % of children under the age of six months have been exclusively breastfed, according to the latest National Health and Family Survey (NHFS-4). For the healthy growth of a child, the child must be breastfed and consume no other solid or liquid food until the infant completes six months. The latest survey also shows that 56% of the rural children below six months were exclusively breastfed, while it was only 52.1% amongst urban children.

Are you a new mom? Are you struggling with your breastfeeding journey with little help in these difficult times? Breastfeeding needs support, care and timely guidance by an expert. Seek help from lactation consultants virtually at our Centre for Mother and Child from the safety of your home. Please find below the link to book your online appointment: https://www.kokilabenhospital.com/manage/shop/online-consultation-new-patient.html