Home isolation for COVID-19 patients brought down rate of hospitalization to 3%: Portea Medical
45% of the patients were high risk; aged above 60 years and with co-morbidities
Portea Medical, India’s largest outside-of-hospital consumer healthcare company has provided home isolation services to 4,00,308 COVID positive patients pan India since May 2020. The company’s home isolation programme witnessed encouraging reduction in the rate of hospitalization to about 3%. 45% of the patients were above 60 years and with co-morbidities and were classified as high-risk.
During the second wave, Portea introduced oxygen therapy for COVID patients, ICU care, chemotherapy and a number of homecare solutions for cancer patients. The company set up isolation and treatment centers to counter the lack of hospital beds apart from introducing new point of care based remote monitoring of health vitals of patients, especially elders. These isolation centers had oxygen therapy beds with 24x7 doctors and nurses available at site. About 75% of the COVID Home Isolation patients were between 20-59 years while 17% belonged to the above 60 age group and 8% were below 20 years of age. Overall, 34% of the patients presented different co-morbidities – Hypertension (13.2%), Diabetes (12.9%), Obesity (12%), Long term steroid therapy (7.1%), Thyroid disorder (5.35%) among others.
Ms Meena Ganesh, MD, Co-Founder and Chairperson, Portea Medical
Speaking about this, Ms Meena Ganesh, MD, Co-Founder and Chairperson, Portea Medical, said, “The COVID-19 outbreak has been an incredibly painful experience for the country. It was during this period that Portea Medical went all out with its home isolation services to ensure that patients who could be managed at home get adequate support and care. This has not only led to reduced rate of hospitalization but also ensured that the hospital beds are reserved for those who need it the most. We are ramping up our resources in the wake of the Omicron threat and will continue offering our services in times to come.”
Portea managed all the home isolation patients successfully with home care and monitoring. Around 9.5% of these patients had one or more family members showing symptoms. The company also marshalled resources, mobilized key relationships with contact centre partners, and executed unprecedented collaborations to deliver home isolation support for Covid-19 patients under agreements with the governments of Delhi, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and local administrations.
As India’s largest home healthcare player, Portea has been delivering consistent, high- quality patient care in various parts of the country. The company has catered to over 5 million patients in their home environment offering an extensive range of services for chronic diseases, elderly care, post-surgery care, diabetes management, chemotherapy at home, and other diseases or injuries requiring long-term care.