In a bid to make collection of throat swabs from persons with COVID-19 symptoms secure, a walk-in sample kiosk for the collection of samples has been developed in the COVID-19 hospital of the Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Madikeri.
The box-shaped see-through structure has been set up in a separate room at the hospital’s isolation ward where a health worker collects samples from each person from inside the protected compartment, without exposing himself or herself to the patient.
A pair of gloves is attached to the booth from outside through which the sample is drawn. This evades the person from wearing a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kit to collect the sample as the kiosk’s protective shield minimises the use of PPEs during sample collection, a doctor claimed.
The waste generated from the use of the one-time kit was reduced as well.
The frontline medical worker enters the kiosk under protection wearing mask, gloves and shoes as per the sample collection guidelines and inserts his or her hands into the sticking out gloves. The patient with symptoms will be sitting on a chair in front of the gloves. Using the collection tubes, the throat secretions are collected. The patient has to throw the disposable items into the dustbin kept next to the kiosk before leaving the sample collection room.
After each patient gives his or her throat secretion, the room is disinfected and the gloves are changed before the next patient gets in. The sanitizing is done by a person wearing PPE.
KIMS Director and Dean K.B. Cariappa told The Hindu that the kiosk gives a kind of confidence to the health worker collecting the sample from the patient since the cabin had a sealed protective shield.
“The kiosk saves on the PPE kits used while collecting the samples. If necessary, the health worker can also wear the PPE kit for additional safety. Even without the kit, the kiosk is safe and prevents the possible threats of infection,” he said.
The kiosk in Madikeri has been set up at a cost of ₹20,000.
The teaching hospital of KIMS has been converted into the 250-bed COVID-19 hospital and the in-patients of the hospital (non-COVID-19 cases) had been shifted to a private hospital taken over by the district administration in view of the pandemic.
