No-Contact Specimen Collection Booths Installed in Cebu Hospitals

Six “no-contact” specimen collection booths (SCB) have been installed in five medical facilities in Metro Cebu, according to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Central Visayas on Thursday.

DOST-Cebu provincial director Juan Edgar Osorio said the project is in line with the agency’s drive to help the national government in the fight against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and in assisting medical facilities acquire SCBs that prevent human-to-human contact.

The six SCBs were delivered and installed, ready for use in five medical centers under the management of the Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas “to help in the collection of samples in the mass testing efforts,” Osorio said in a statement.

The contactless SCBs were installed last week at the Eversley Child Sanitarium and Memorial Hospital, Talisay City District Hospital, St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital, and DOH-7 Center for Health Development and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center – Subnational Laboratory.

Each of the hospitals received one booth each, except in the VSMMC-SNL where two SCBs have been installed to test the hundreds of specimens every day.

The SCBs were jointly funded by DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) and the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD). The DOST-PCIEERD’s Startup Grant awardee Futuristic Aviation and Maritime Enterprise, Inc. (FAME) fabricated the booths.

“Inspired by the phone booth-style coronavirus testing facilities in other Asian countries, the testing booth concept aims to improve the testing capacity of testing centers and hospitals without direct contact between the patient and the health worker,” the statement said.

The SCBs are compacted with good ventilation, easy to mobilize, can remotely monitor the patient’s temperature, and provides a good protective barrier between the front-liner and the suspected Covid-19 patient, it said.

The deployment of these booths aimed to provide an additional layer of protection for health workers, as the science and technology department “is committed to elevate the Filipino’s quality of life through science and technology in meeting the challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis,” the statement added. (PNA)