Driven by the desire to help others, the operators and epidemiologists at the Call Center of the Public Health Institute work as a large team on the same task, with the same goal - to have as few patients with the coronavirus as possible and to breathe a sigh of relief as soon as possible.
Stefan Mikić, a fifth-year student at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montenegro, who volunteers as an operator in the Call Center of the Institute for Public Health, told the PR Center that the students, aware of the speed of the spread of the infection, wanted to get involved and help the professors and assistants and that way they contribute to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
"All students have received quality training and we are ready to receive all calls during the day. The Call Center works from 23 am to XNUMX pm and during that period we are divided into three shifts. We follow social distancing measures, prevention rules and wear protective equipment to protect ourselves and others," Mikić said.
As he said, up to 1616 citizens call SOS line 800 a day.
"It's a relief that we approach everything together. We work as a large team with the same task, with the same goal - to defeat this pandemic and to reduce the number of patients as much as possible. I discuss with my colleagues about the happenings in our country, but also in the world. We follow what is happening, we attend online courses and webinars, which are available through the World Health Organization," Mikić said.
Stefan, like his colleagues who work at the Call Center, currently lives alone, but is in daily contact with those closest to him, who, as he pointed out, are proud of what he does.
"That is one of the criteria we had to meet in order to work here. So, in a way, we are isolated, to reduce the risk of spreading the infection. But, of course, we are in daily contact with family members. They are all proud of our small contribution to our assistants and professors," said Mikić.
And he hopes, as he said, that everyone, after the time spent in their homes, will breathe a sigh of relief aware of the fact that their stay at home is beneficial, both for them and for their loved ones and society.
Stefan's friend and colleague Andrea Jovović, also a fifth-year student at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montenegro, said that, even in a difficult and uncertain situation, volunteering at the Call Center was a nice and useful experience for her.
"Driven by my love for this job and the desire to help others, I decided to study medicine. It is nice when you are in a situation to help others, in any way, to be there for them. I hope that we student volunteers provide support and help our doctors, who are currently the most exposed to all this," said Jovović.
Stress and effort, as she said, are reduced and overcome when the team is unique, as is the case at the Institute for Public Health.
"We are there for each other and we help each other. The very atmosphere here makes us quite calm and gives us the strength to endure. We think about how many calls there will be, what the situation will be that day, what will happen. But the working day, for the most part, passes without problems," Jovović said.
Grateful to her family and friends who are all by her side, Andrea told Montenegrin citizens to stay at home and help those who are fighting for all of us.
Ena Grbović from the Center for Health Promotion at the Institute for Public Health has also been working in the Call Center since the onset of the pandemic and, as she said, it is a completely new experience.
"The center where I work deals with population health analysis and health indicators every day, and we are in contact with different categories of population groups every day. However, this is a new type of work, because the citizens' first contact with us is over the phone," explained Grbović.
On days when there are more positive cases of the coronavirus, citizens are, as she said, more anxious.
"We try to calm them down and provide them with some kind of psycho-social support, so that they can carry out the conversation with the epidemiologist in the best way. We had different experiences. People call with different problems. We also try to refer them to institutions that can help them in accordance with their problems," explained Grbović.
The questions in the triage questionnaire, which citizens go through with the operators, refer, as she explained, to their behavior, to whether they follow the recommendations of the National Coordination Body and to the symptoms they have.
Those who are aware that they have had contact with people infected with the coronavirus are, as she said, the most worried.
"Then we first try to talk to them, and then we talk about the symptoms. We also have the practice of calling those citizens again after the interview to see how they are doing, especially if they are upset. We want to let them know that they can rely on the employees of the Public Health Institute. If a person does this job the way it should be, he has to take it home with him in some part, but we work in a health facility, we are there for the citizens, and it is expected to be like that," Grbović said.
Healthcare specialist at the Institute of Public Health, Dragana Vulikić, pointed out that the operators for citizens are very understanding and respond to every call.
"The call center sometimes works for ten or more hours. "We know that we can be tired and exhausted, but it is important for us to finish the day successfully," said Vulikić.
Working in the Call Center, as she told PR Centrum, daily brings stories that shake the operators, but there are also those that make us smile.
"We are trying to help the citizens and make it easier for them during this stressful period, which we are all going through," said Dragana.
Epidemiologist at the Call Center of the Institute for Public Health, Aleksandar Obradović, said that doctors from the Institute for Public Health from other centers such as the Center for Health Promotion and the Center for Statistics and Informatics also work in that center.
"We always thank those colleagues, because due to the enormous workload of our colleagues from the competent epidemiological service and field work, without them, we would not be able to have a doctor available at any time in the Call Center," Obradović said.
And the role of doctors in the Call Center is, as he said, twofold.
"First of all, the operator while talking to the citizen, if he cannot solve the situation, can consult with us to get adequate information, or even one of us can take over the conversation. On the other hand, those who come forward and have symptoms or suspect that they have been exposed to the sample of the new coronavirus, are surveyed and doctors call them in," explained Obradović.
After the local transmission was established, all the persons who were surveyed, i.e. those who had symptoms or were in contact with someone suspected of having contracted the coronavirus, were invited by the epidemiologist, "and this happens in more than 95 percent of cases in one hour after the person was surveyed".
"And actually all this should be seen as a mosaic. The first piece of the puzzle is when a person calls an operator and is interviewed. After that, we return the call and take a more extensive medical history. If a person has symptoms, we talk about those symptoms. If we are talking about a person who suspects that he was in contact with someone who is positive, we talk about that contact. She describes that contact to us in detail. Then we examine how the person behaved in the days preceding the onset of symptoms or that contact, and we generally examine what the person does, who he lives with. Therefore, an exhaustive epidemiological survey is taken," explained Obradović.
It is important to distinguish, as he said, that people need health care and potential sampling at the same time.
"Through the information we receive, together with the person, we consider what their risk is if it really is the coronavirus and we direct the person to whom to contact in the right way. This is why I say the whole process is a mosaic. Most health centers have triage centers, so we can refer the person there. At this moment, clinical triage is more important than epidemiological anamnesis. Based on the symptoms, it is necessary to separate whether someone is suspicious or not, and in the same act to provide health care," Obradović explained.
Since the establishment of the Call Center, operators have received over 11 calls, he said.
"I always point out that the operators responded properly to each of those calls. If there were missed calls, those people were subsequently called, it all depends on the workload. The number of calls per day varied. The average in the first three weeks was over 500 calls per day. We distinguish between workloads on weekends and weekdays," said Obradović.
On the weekend, as he said, there are fewer calls, and the average is around 300 per day.
"During the working week, the average is higher. Of course, as the situation generally calms down, so does the number of calls. With all those calls, about 1600 people have been surveyed so far," Obradović pointed out.
The epidemiologist on duty from the Call Center of the Institute for Public Health, Marija Todorović, thanked the student volunteer operators who, as she said, showed great dedication, sacrifice, will and enthusiasm in difficult times.
"They are of great help to us to establish contact with all the citizens who call from all over Montenegro. Also, at the same time, we owe a great debt of gratitude to our fellow epidemiologists from other municipalities, who do the lion's share of the work in the field. They are also overwhelmed with calls from the Call Center, and they are also responsible for their epidemiological services and health centers. So we thank them for everything they did, for every call they answered at any time of the day or night," said Todorović.
She believes that the citizens have recognized that it is most important that we all be on the same wavelength, "because we are all on the same task, to protect the health of our citizens, as much as we at the Institute and in other health services, as well as the citizens themselves by staying at home and listening to the recommendations of the National coordinating body".
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