At the ER of Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Dr. Sun Guobing, Chief of ER, become busy again after the anti-epidemic routine. He said, "Compared with the earlier anti-epidemic jobs, we have less in our daily work." Now the ER has returned to its normal functions.
Since Jan 25, the hospital was designated to receive COVID-19 patients. Dr. Sun said, "All the patients were with fever, and we felt a lot of pressure." At that time, we received 400 to 500 febrile patients each day. And then, the hospital emergently repurposed some functions, and got 950 isolation beds, with all the staff of over 1000 fighting against the epidemic.
In fact, the hospital had been in the fight of the epidemic earlier. On Dec. 26, 2019, Dr. Zhang Jixian, chief of respiratory disease and ICU, had a elderly couple for fever and cough, whose CT scan showed different results from the known pneumonia infections. She had their son examined. Although the son had no symptoms of fever and cough, his CT showed the same results. "Generally, we seldom see the same disease in the whole family, unless an infectious disease." Taking this as an abnormal case, Dr. Zhang reported it to the hospital executive immediately and then through to the CDC.
Till Feb 14, ten isolation areas and 334 beds were in place, and 316 cases were admitted with confirmed and suspected infection. From Dec 27, 2019 to Feb 14, 2020, a total of 728 confirmed and suspected cases were hospitalized and 308 discharged.
In the treatment of COVID-19, the hospital made a full use of the integration of TCM and western medicine. On the basis of the national treatment and diagnosis protocol, joint rounds, consultations, case discussions and treating plans were adopted. With dialectic diagnosis and treatment, the patients were given medications of TCM decoction, injection and drugs. An Changqing, president of the hospital, introduced: "TCM is given to 96.9% of the hospitalized patients, and 97% of the patients given TCM were recovered and discharged.
For the severe and critical patients with oxygen and respiratory support, TCM were also given to them, with the principle of one formula for one patient, such as Lianhua Qingwen Granule and Lung Cleansing and Detoxifying Decoction. The TCM intervention helped to improve the breathing difficulty and the immunity.
In spite the severe situation, the hospital sent a few medical teams to Wuhan Red Cross Hospital and Jinyintan Hospital as paring assistance, sent medical workers to do nucleic acid test in community quarantine places and bus stations. On Feb 12, the hospital took over JiangAn Tazihu Makeshift Hospital, hospitalizing over 1100 patients with mild symptoms. On Feb 25, the hospital took over Ezhou Liangzihu People's Hospital for COVID-19 treatment.
On Feb 21, the hospital set up rehabilitation area and an expert group. In the area, the patients were given TCM medication and taught to do the traditional TCM exercises, such as the Tai-chi, Baduanjin, WuqinXi, together with modern rehabilitation methods. After evaluation on functional deficiency, a tailored rehabilitation plan was set for each patient, which developed integrated TCM and western medicine treating mode of prevention-treatment-rehabilitation.
On March 15, according to the deployment of Wuhan COVID-19 Prevention and Control Command Center, the hospital was among the first hospitals which returned to normal functions of out-patient and ER, and received patients with no COVID-19.
The statistics show that, as of March 17, the hospital had done CT scan of 10931 times and 6934 nucleic acid tests for communities and social welfare institutions. It hospitalized 1126 patients and discharged 719.