Deloitte designed a program that can be scaled in the fight against Covid: CEO Punit Renjen

Deloitte, one of the Big Four Accounting Organizations, has developed “a very innovative, simple and responsive program” in the fight against COVID-19 that can be scaled up in record time, its CEO Punit Renjen said. Monday.

“We have designed, I believe, a very innovative, simple and responsive program that is integrated,” Renjen told PTI, a day after the launch of “Sanjeevani Pariyojana” (project life) in Karnal district in Haryana. .

The program, designed and supported by Deloitte, the Public Health Foundation of India and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Haryana, is a supervised virtual home care initiative to help people quickly access health care for mild symptoms. to moderates of COVID-19.

“We created a manual and codified that, so we could scale it statewide. We are now going to take this and then implement it in the next district, which is Rohtak, ”Renjen said.

In addition to investing Rs 5 crore on the project, Deloitte has deployed a team of 25 of its staff on a pro bono basis. The multinational has also devised a plan to do so as part of a statewide effort. “This is the first time in the country that we are doing this. It (the program) will allow us to tackle the current wave of Covid. This will allow us to tackle the third wave if that happens. But if this program holds, it may be an opportunity for us to provide primary health care in rural communities, ”Renjen said in response to a question.

“The real magic here is integration. For the first time, everything has been integrated, from the command center to telemedicines, from virtual health to home health kits to multi-tier hospitals to ASHA workers. They are all working together in a coordinated manner with the local administration, the deputy commissioner and the police superintendent, ”he said.

Deloitte, he said, has lost around 30 of its employees in India to COVID-19. The program itself evolved based on Renjen’s personal experience of his mother in Rohtak, who tested positive for the viral disease.

“My mother went through it at home. When I saw that she was sending back to the doctor every day … my mom’s daily count in terms of oximeter reading, what is the pulse reading, what is the temperature, texted to the doctor. .. if this is the case can happen to my mother, it can happen to anyone, ”he said, reflecting on the genesis of the project which has now hit the ground and is underway in Karnal .

There are around 16 lakh in Karnal, which is mainly a rural district. There are approximately 5,500 cases of COVID-19 with a positivity rate greater than 20%. “Those numbers started to go down, but when we started it was. Our initial assessment with the Haryana government was that 94 percent of these patients could be treated at home, 5 percent in regular hospitals, and 1 percent in intensive care units. “If you think about it, what it does is if you have a program, it eases the rush for hospital beds,” Renjen said.

The program has seven aspects, including a command center, increasing the capacity of the existing call center with a COVID-19 hotline, mobilizing 200 medical students to provide virtual health services for mild to moderate cases with supervision and by deploying SLA ambulances and mobile pharmacies.

It also includes the provision of medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators to a field hospital and the launch of an awareness campaign on home care protocols and the mobilization of community workers (the ASHA network) to support home care.

“I think we created a playbook. We expect Rohtak to be finished in two weeks. I hope we can extend it to the whole state of Haryana, ”Renjen said, adding that there had been discussions to make it a nationwide project.

“I also spoke to other organizations, foundations that are very interested. Hopefully we can at least demonstrate Karnal and Rohtak very quickly and prove that the system can be scaled. Then I hope we do Haryana and other states, ”he said.

This is a unique program, said Renjan, adding, “It really took the work of Deloitte, working with these medical leaders and the state, to develop this innovative and responsive program.