Adopting the initiative called “One Hospital Command Center” (OHCC) has resulted in decongestion of hospitals in this city catering to patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

This was noted by retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, deputy chief implementer of Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF)-Visayas against Covid-19, who has been overseeing the response here in the past month using the Cebu City model.

“When we arrived in Bacolod, the capacity utilization rate (CUR) of hospitals was about 99 percent. There were only two beds left available and many of the patients were not accommodated,” Feliciano said in a statement on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the city government held a ceremonial launch of the OHCC as a centralized hospital command center for better management and use of information from Bacolod hospitals on Covid-19 cases.

Data released on Wednesday night showed that the CUR has dropped to 71.35 percent. This shows that out of the 197 functional Covid-19 beds in all hospitals, only 141 are occupied by admitted patients.

“Hospitals play a vital role in the fight against Covid-19. Having the appropriate healthcare capacity to address the patients, they are always part of the efforts,” Feliciano said.

When they established the OHCC, which is part of the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center, complementary efforts were contributed by various hospitals in the city.

“We were able to put in place a referral system on the ground where we refer the patients before admitting them to tertiary hospitals,” he added.

The OHCC includes a call center manned by agents for tele-consultation and education. Teams are also deployed to coordinate hospital admissions and out-of-town hospital transfers as well as manage medical transport and data analytics.

Healthcare facilities under the OHCC include the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital, Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital, Metro Bacolod Hospital and Medical Center, South Bacolod General Hospital, The Doctors’ Hospital, and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.

As of Wednesday night, Bacolod has recorded 4,025 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 1,169 active cases, 2,775 recoveries, and 81 deaths.

“The cases we have right now, we call them controlled cases because they are from household transmissions. If it’s from a household transmission, it’s on lockdown, and it’s controlled,” Feliciano said.

He added that the EOC will be doubling their efforts on index cases that are of unknown origin. (PNA)