To improve patient care through better family engagement and education, the Punjab government on Thursday launched a flagship health scheme — Care Companion Programme (CCP).
“Under the innovative program, the hospital hallways or wards will turn into classrooms and taps into the most compassionate and willing resource available for care, that is the patient's own family, by teaching the family high-impact medical skills to take care of their loved ones in the hospital and at home,” said the State Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra after launching the scheme.
Mohindra said that the CCP will initially be implemented in Maternal and Child Health wings of six district hospitals at Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar, Sangrur, Tarn Taran. It will be rolled out to additional public health facilities in the state in the near future, he added.
“Staff nurses from all six hospitals are trained on how to engage and teach patients and caregivers in the wards. Families will learn high-impact health skills for taking care of the new-born baby and post-partum mother, specifically, baby hygiene, thermal care, breastfeeding, and maternal nutrition,” he said.
The Minister added that the aim is to reduce the number of baby deaths and complications like infections in the first 30 days’ post-discharge, and ensure adoption of long-term health pro motive behaviours.
For the purpose, the state Health and Family Welfare Department has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Noora Health India Trust — a healthcare non-profit organization dedicated to patient and caregiver education that works to improve patient outcomes through better family engagement and education through the award winning CCP.
Noora Health will be the technical partners to implement the program in the State.
He said that the state Health and Family Welfare Department is committed to improving health status and welfare of Punjab’s citizens by increasing the awareness of its people and building capacity of its health workers towards decreasing the neonatal mortality, burden of re-admissions, post discharge complications and increasing hospital hygiene, productivity of nurses, and patient satisfaction in the public healthcare institutes in Punjab.