| | August 20218D uring the initial wave of Covid-19 pandemic, Hospitals worldwide diverted the routine inpatient & outpatient cases to meet the surge in demand for managing the Covid cases. Clinicians &Non-Covid patients deferred "non-urgent" consults, evaluations, diagnostics, surgeries & therapeutics due to the fear of the infection. As the contagion of pandemic was high, hospitals were more occupied with covid cases. At present, we are all fighting with this pandemic and doing all the necessary things required for the patients. We hope and wish thatthis pandemic will be over soon and there is lot to reflect upon based on the challenges that we experienced during this period.To my understanding we adopted newer ways of doing same things driven out of necessity to be efficient in every aspect of healthcare operations :1. TECHNOLOGY : NEED TO HARNESS IT MORE AGGRESSIVELY.Virtual Consultations ­VideoConsults are the best exam-ples. The number of virtual appointments have increased-significantly since the pandemic began. Remote Medicine has increased access to Care in three ways ­ First, patients can get care they need at the convenience and comfort of their home. Second, highly trained specialists -- including neurologists, intensivists, neonatologists, and oncologists have now better access the patients even in remote areas -- the specialist opinion is now only a couple of clicks away. Third, instead of transporting more patients to an intensive care unit (ICU) in a referral center in a big city, the patients can stay in their local hospital -- which is in-credibly important during the pandemic since it is helping us free up as many of our ICU beds as we can for Covid-19 patients. By utilizing more and more Video-Consult facility, the patient can avail consultations remotely, thus avoiding the risk of i HE WHO HAS HEALTH, HAS HOPE; AND HE WHO HAS HOPE, HAS EVERYTHING. ­ THOMAS CARLYLEBy Riyaz Khan, CEO, Continental HospitalsVANTAGE POINTRiyaz Khan, CEO
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