Health Tips

Home Quarantine Monitoring: How Does It Help?

Lately, according to the MOH Malaysia, almost all COVID-19 positive cases are under categories 1 and 2.

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Where patients in category 1 show no COVID-19 symptoms, while patients in category 2 show only mild symptoms.

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Since categories 1 and 2 are low-risk patients, hence they are mandatory to undergo quarantine, either at home or at the quarantine center. Currently, most of the patients undergo self-quarantine at home.

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Quarantine is often an unpleasant experience for those who undergo it. Separation from loved ones, loss of freedom, uncertainty over disease status (the condition of some patients even deteriorates as the disease progresses), can create dramatic effects.¹

How to ensure all asymptomatic and mild symptoms COVID-19 cases are properly followed up during self-quarantine? ^2, 3

Having a medical team to observe and monitor home-quarantined patients consistently can be helpful to them, and even be of lifesaving importance. Here is where telemedicine comes into play.

Utilizing telemedicine during home-quarantine period is able to:

1. Complement initial COVID-19 screening

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As a result it greatly increases the accuracy of diagnosis through consultation with doctor/nurses.

2. Detect newly emerged COVID-19 symptoms (if any)

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This helps the medical team be promptly informed to make appropriate treatment decisions without being misguided by the initial clinical diagnosis. Based on this research, the eCounseling system helped patients report their elevated body temperatures (as fever is the highly prevalent symptoms during initial phase of COVID-19 infection), who then could monitor the body temperature changes over time to detect any alarming patterns. 

3. Identify the key roles of dynamic changes in 4 diagnostic symptoms (fever, shortness of breath, lack of strength and muscle soreness)

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The same research showed that shortness of breath peaked on Day 6 for non-hospitalized patients but persisted in hospitalized patients and was exacerbated over time. Similarly, both lack of strength and muscle soreness returned to normal by Day 4 for non-hospitalized patients but not for hospitalized patients. When a patient reported via the eCounseling system that he/she was still experiencing the symptoms listed above after Day 4, the multidisciplinary team went on alert and paid closer attention to that patient.

4. Assess quarantine management

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It also helps medical staff obtain more details about the clinical symptoms of the patients without the need for close physical contact in a clinic/hospital. The quarantine management assessment works well in identifying patients with disease progression.

Continuous monitoring home-quarantined patients with a telemedicine system helps greatly reduce the risks of delayed hospitalization as the disease progresses. It is effective and safe in patients with no or mild symptoms and those who are at low risk of complications. In addition, implementation of this system will reduce cross-infection among medical workers and patients. 

Recently, DOC2US has launched a 10-day COVID-19 Home Care Plan, targeted at categories 1 and 2 COVID-19 patients.

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For more information, please contact: 019-3967828 (8am-4pm), 019-5693828 (4pm-12am).

What our patient said about our home care plan...

References:

1. The Lancet: The Psychological Impact of Quarantine and How to Reduce It: Rapid Review of the Evidence
2. National Library of Medicine: Monitoring and Management of Home-Quarantined Patients with COVID-19 Using a WeChat-Based Telemedicine System: Retrospective Cohort Study
3. National Library of Medicine: COVID-19 Home Monitoring Program: Healthcare Innovation in Developing, Maintaining, and Impacting the Outcome of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients

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Written by

Ms. Elaine Fung