CAHO confers top awards to CMC Vellore, GMC Chennai, Columbia Asia for workplace safety amid COVID-19

The winners were selected based on "Measures Taken by Hospitals Towards Worker / Workplace Safety during Covid-19 Pandemic." The awards were organized by CAHO in association with ICMR - National Institution of Occupational Health (ICMR-NIOH) and the Global Society of HSE Professionals. More than 100 hospitals participated in the Awards from India, including 7 hospitals from abroad.

Christian Medical College Vellore (Chennai) and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Kochi) bagged the first and second prize, respectively, in the 'Very Large Hospitals' category (hospitals with more than 600 beds). Encouragement Awards in this category were given to Ramaiah Medical College Hospital (Bangalore) and Yenepoya Medical College Hospital (Mangalore).

In the 'Large Hospitals Category' (300-600 beds), the first and second prizes were bagged by the Government Medical College, Omandurar (Chennai), and Fortis Hospital, Mohali (Punjab), respectively. Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital For Children (Mumbai) and Tawam Hospital (AbuDhabi) bagged the Encouragement Awards in this category.

In the 'Medium Size Hospitals' category (100-300 bed hospitals), Aster Sanad Hospital (Riyadh) and Trauma &Emergency Care Centre (Victoria Hospital Campus, Bangalore Medical College, and Research Institute) won the first and second prizes, respectively. The Encouragement Awards in this category were bagged by Anand Surgical Hospital (Ahmedabad) and Kohinoor Hospitals (Mumbai).

The winners of the 'Small Hospitals' category (hospitals with fewer than 100 beds) included Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal (Bengaluru) which got the first prize. Dharmagiri St Joseph Hospital (Kozhikode, Kerala) bagged the second prize. The Encouragement Awards were received by Wockhardt Hospital (Thane) and ARMC AEGiS Hospital (Malappuram, Kerala).

Dr. Vijay Agarwal, President, CAHO, said, "Healthcare workers are on the frontline during this pandemic, working tirelessly. As per the data available with us from more than100 hospital submissions that we received for these Awards, more than 11% of staff stationed in COVID wards have turned positive for COVID. Nearly 6% of all healthcare workers in the hospitals have got the infection. It has been an extremely stressful time for the hospital administration in trying to safeguard their healthcare staff. But even with limited resources, many hospitals managed to introduce several innovations and took ingenious measures to protect their staff from Covid-19 infection. The Awards are to recognize the healthcare organizations which do their best to provide a safe and stress-free work environment for their staff."

Commenting about the methodology of assessment, Dr. Lallu Joseph, Secretary-General, CAHO, said, "It has been a great experience for us learning from submissions from the public, private and trust hospitals from India and abroad. Some of the interesting innovations and staff safety measures taken by the hospitals include introducing a caretaker robot, Bluetooth stethoscopes, N95 sterilization and reuse, distribution of food with immune-boosting nutrition for the staff, psychological counseling for the staff through apps, neighborhood watch by the hospital staff to ensure compliance, intubation boxes, Thanjavur Air Barrier Technique to securely deliver compressed medical-grade air to healthcare professionals in operation theatres, and UV cleaning. We plan to bring a compendium of useful information about these innovations of the hospitals."

For the Awards, the performance of the healthcare organizations was assessed based on various worker/workplace safety measures taken by the hospitals. The parameters included setting up of a COVID task force, thermal screening, provision of adequate PPEs, physical distancing barriers and partitions in cubicles, adoption of mandatory handwashing protocols, online meetings, hourly cleaning of all surfaces, psychological counselling for workers, food and refreshments for staff managing COVID, redesigned the flow of patients and staff, scrub suits and cleaning, medical care for staff turning COVID positive, internal compliance checks, and so on. CAHO also took into account the number of patients treated, and the number of staff at COVID and non-COVID wards not turning positive.

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