The Implementation of Patient-Centered Humanistic Care for COVID-19 Closely Contacted Hemodialysis Patients Under the Hospital-Based Group Medical Quarantine: A Brief Research Report

Abstract

In February 2020, an inpatient in Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH), China, was confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus. In this case, 143 hemodialysis patients were labeled as close contacts and required to be placed under the hospital-based group medical quarantine (HB-GMQ) for 2 weeks by the authorities. After the case was reported, false or misleading information about the case flourished on social media platforms, which led to infodemic. Under this context, PKUPH adopted patient-centered humanistic care to implement the HB-GMQ, through the synergy of administrative, healthcare, logistical, and other measures under the model of patient-centered care of the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS). As a result, all the patients tided over the HB-GMQ with no COVID-19 infection and no unanticipated adverse events, and all met the criteria for lifting the HB-GMQ. According to the questionnaires taken during the HB-GMQ, a high level of satisfaction was found among the quarantined and no symptomatic increase of anxiety and depression in the patients before and during the HB-GMQ, by comparing the Zung self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) conducted in December 2019 and on the 12th day of the HB-GMQ. This article is to brief on PKUPH's experience in implementing patient-centered humanistic care tailored to hemodialysis patients under the HB-GMQ, and to validate the hypothesis that patient-centered humanistic care is effective and helpful to help them tide over the HB-GMQ, so as to shed light on how to implement the HB-GMQ and cope with the HB-GMQ-induced problems in other hospitals.