Progression of the Pathway for Public Health Care during the COVID-19 Outbreak at District Health Office

Noraziani Khamis, Intan Syafinaz Saimy, Nor Hayati Ibrahim, Nur Khairah Badaruddin, Nor Zam Azihan Mohd Hassan, Faridah Kusnin, Sukhvinder Singh Sandhu and Masitah Mohamed
Additional contact information
Noraziani Khamis: Institute for Health Management, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Malaysia
Intan Syafinaz Saimy: Institute for Health Management, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Malaysia
Nor Hayati Ibrahim: Institute for Health Management, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Malaysia
Nur Khairah Badaruddin: Institute for Health Management, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Malaysia
Nor Zam Azihan Mohd Hassan: Institute for Health Systems Research, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Shah Alam 40170, Malaysia
Faridah Kusnin: Klang District Health Office, Selangor Health Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Klang 41200, Malaysia
Sukhvinder Singh Sandhu: Klang District Health Office, Selangor Health Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Klang 41200, Malaysia
Masitah Mohamed: Klang District Health Office, Selangor Health Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Klang 41200, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Public health activities under district health offices (DHOs) play a major role in Malaysia’s fight against COVID-19. This article aims to describe and illustrate the public health activity pathway in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and a team of public health workers who are familiar with DHO work settings was created in April 2020 for that purpose. Review of documents and the Ministry of Health’s updates was carried out, followed by a series of discussions with stakeholders. Based on the steps in the outbreak investigation tasks, the flow of activities from January to May 2020 was listed in line with the phases of the country’s National Movement Control Order 2020. Results show that the activities can be classified into three different sections—namely, the main action areas, category of cases, and level of care. The main process flow of activities comprised the case management and support activities. Case management flow was split into tasks for patients under investigation and persons under surveillance, while the support services existed throughout the phases. The pathways illustrate that the progression of the pandemic translated directly to changes in the pattern of activities, with additional subgroups of activities in accordance with all imposed guidelines.

Keywords: district health office; public health activities; COVID-19 control and prevention; COVID-19 outbreak (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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