The ZCH’s contribution in time of COVID-19

When the coronavirus changed life as we know it, the Children’s Hospital of School of Medicine, Zhejiang University made changes that are keeping their patients, families, visitors, staff, employees and community at large safe. The health and well-being of the local, regional, national and international community remains their highest priority.

The hospital created a larger telemedicine system and has new processes in place that are helping families influenced by COVID-19. Technologies, such as wireless stethoscopes that can record the heart rate, were introduced to minimize the risk of transmission and reduce the difficulty of diagnosis for the doctors wearing protection gears.

As the only designated children’s hospital for COVID-19 in Zhejiang Province, the Hospital has been treating more than 70 patients and suspected cases since Jan 22, including the 3-month-old baby girl, the youngest patient in China. Furthermore, the newborn of a confirmed COVID-19 patient was immediately transferred to the Hospital after the delivery and carefully monitored for potential mother-to-baby transmission. The baby later was tested negative and discharged after 15-day observation period in a very good condition.

In time of COVID-19 pandemic, ZCH delivers care, helps their patients navigate the crisis, and allays their fears and worries with love, compassion and expertise.

These important experiences were compiled into the pilot guidelines for diagnosing and treating children infected by the novel coronavirus. A weekly call was set up by the doctors in the COVID-19 Multicenter CICU Response to update the latest development with global pediatric experts from North America, Europe, Asia, etc.

Through online video conference, hospital leaders in the Hospital actively participated in global cooperation and concerted efforts on fighting the COVID-19. On April 22, Dr. SHU Qiang, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the hospital, was invited to give a keynote report about the multi-centric clinical study during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 PDA Management Forum. Dr. FU Junfen, the Executive Vice President of the hospital and the secretary general of APPE, discussed the implementation of academic activities during the meetings of the APPES and IMPE. She also participated in the “COVID-19 Prevention and Control Experience International Sharing & Health China International Public Health Management Training Project”, and shared ZCH experiences with ~ 10,000 online audience.

During the crisis, numerous numbers of letters of support and messages were exchanged between the Hospital and partners overseas. Employees who had studied abroad donated more than 6,000 pieces of medical surgical masks and protective clothing to international partners in need.

“The pandemic is not an excuse to stop international exchanges，”Dr. Fu said， “Although face-to-face communication has been blocked due to COVID-19, many online academic exchanges and talks were conducted, which were very popular to our audience. We will try various ways to continue our international collaboration and exchanges in the future.”