Chiang Dao Hospital

On Monday we visited the Chiang Dao Hospital which is a district hospital with approximately 60 beds. This hospital serves a population of 93,802 residents in the 83 villages of the Chaing Dao District. A large focus of this hospital is working to improve healthcare for HIV/AIDS patients. The pharmacy team works specifically with patients and volunteers to counsel patients, conduct home visits, and provide activities for HIV/AIDS infected people. The volunteers that help the pharmacists with much of their services are patients themselves and therefore are able to help the others understand the importance of taking their medications and having proper adherence.

Calendars with pockets used to help patients with HIV/AIDS improve adherence.

Devon and Devon looking at some of the medications in the pharmacy.

HIV drugs being prepared to dispense to a patient. All medications we have in the US!

 While at the hospital, we visited a few departments including the emergency department and the maternity ward. The emergency department at Chiang Dao Hospital services about 120-150 a day with just one doctor on for each 8 hour shift. Patients that are suspected of having any respiratory illness including TB are separated into a different area and actually receive their treatments outside to avoid the spread of illness.

There are no pharmacists located in the ER, so this chart is to remind nurses and doctors which drugs are high alert medications.

The beds in the ER department.

The maternity ward at the hospital sees about 8 or 9 patients a day. Many of these mothers are from hill tribes in the north and only come to the hospital to give birth and then go back to their village. In Thailand, no family is allowed to enter the labor and delivery room including the father of the baby. The family must wait in the waiting area in the hallway until the mother and baby are okay to be moved. Nurses are often the only healthcare professionals in the room while the baby is being delivered; the doctor only comes in if there are any complications. Cases that require a C-section are transferred to the next closest hospital which is about an hour away.

The labor and delivery room. Multiple mothers can be giving birth in this room at the same time.

In most wards we are asked to remove our street shoes and are given rubber sandals or clogs to wear instead. Stylish!