BIDI - TB and AIDS day

Today was quite the long day! We traveled to the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Disease Institute (BIDI) and spent all day learningabout HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and how to prevent outbreaks. The hospital was honestly exceptional, with medical advancements and good practices exceeding many hospitals in the US. I was most impressed by how wel the hospital takes care of its patients and employees. When they think of treating patients, they think about the whole scenario and treat them more like a human than a medical case. They decorate the rooms with lifelike flowers, bring birthday cakes if hospitalized on their birthday, give them flowers to give to their mothers on Mothers Day, and will even change your attending doctor to one that satisfies your needs better (for instance, if you like cartoons a lot, they will try to have your doctor be a younger doctor who also likes cartoons so that you have other things to connect on besides medical). Not to mention all the available spiritual accommodations they make. I believe hospitals in the States have a lot to learn from BIDI in terms of patient inckusion and comfort.  It is truly how healthcare should be done, and their fantastic statistics and patient compliance reflects this.

Since BIDI is the county's main disease control facility, they have many sterile, negative pressure rooms to hold very contagious patients. The hospital believes strongly in protecting their employees from the variety of dieseases they are exposed to and practice exceptional howling procedures. It's no surprise to me that 0% of their employees contracted SARS when one patient presented with it.

Two of our students were able to gown up with the head nurse - see pictures below.  The only main difference I noticed was that they did not cover their feet at all! They did have us change into sandals, however they are open toe and don't even have a backing, so I'm not quite sure how safe that might be in the presence of easily communicable diseases.

Informational posters on gowning techniques. 

Step 1: shoes and gowns. 

Cup your hands around the mask and exhale. If you feel any air come out the sides, it's too loose. 

Step 2: masks!

Step 3: hats!

Step 4: gloves! Make sure they go over the gown. 

Lots of hand sanitizer!! Once before you gown up, and then every time you take off a piece of the gown after seeing the patient. 

Ready to go!

Hazard suit for outbreaks/more critical diseases. 

Special breathing mask with fresh air generator buckled on the back

Negative air for the anteroom and patient rooms. 

Doors are all automatic to prevent contamination. 

That's it for today's blog! I hope that gave you some perspective on how infectious disease is done in Thailand!