Prehospital and disaster medicine
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Aug 2020
Critical Care Surge Capacity to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: A Rapid and Affordable Solution in the Novara Hospital.
The rapid insurgence and spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exceeded the limit of the intensive care unit (ICU) contingency plan of the Maggiore della Carità University Hospital (Novara, Italy) generating a crisis management condition. This brief report describes how a prompt response to the sudden request of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) was provided by addressing the key elements of health care system surge capacity from contingency to crisis. In a short time and at a relatively low cost, a structural modification of a hospital aisle allowed to convert the general ICU into a COVID-19 unit, increasing the number of COVID-19 critical care beds by 107%.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Aug 2020
Case ReportsFeedback to Prepare EMS Teams to Manage Infected Patients with COVID-19: A Case Series.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a new respiratory disease, is spreading globally. In France, Emergency Medical Service (EMS) teams are mobile medicalized resuscitation teams composed of emergency physician, nurse or anesthesiologist nurse, ambulance driver, and resident. ⋯ Providers were contaminated during the management of these patients. These cases highlighted the need to review the way these EMS teams are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, in view of heightening potential for early identification of suspicious cases, and of reinforcing the application of staff protection equipment to limit risk of contamination.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Aug 2020
Political Intrusions into the International Health Regulations Treaty and Its Impact on Management of Rapidly Emerging Zoonotic Pandemics: What History Tells Us.
For a large number of health care providers world-wide, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is their first experience in population-based care. In past decades, lower population densities, infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics were rare and driven almost exclusively by natural disasters, predatory animals, and war. In the early 1900s, Sir William Osler first advanced the knowledge of zoonotic diseases that are spread from reservoir animals to human animals. ⋯ In a highly integrated globalized world, both the WHO with its IHR Treaty have the potential to become one of the most effective mechanisms for crisis response and risk reduction world-wide. Practitioners and health decision-makers must break their silence and advocate for a stronger treaty, a return of the WHO's singular global authority, and support highly coordinated population-based management. As Osler recognized, his concept of "one medicine, one health" defines what global public health is today.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Aug 2020
Report from the COVID-19 Virtual Summit, Disaster Experts Speak Out, March 31, 2020.
This article captures the webinar narrative on March 31, 2020 of four expert panelists addressing three questions on the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Each panelist was selected for their unique personal expertise, ranging from front-line emergency physicians from multiple countries, an international media personality, former director of the US Strategic National Stockpile, and one of the foremost international experts in disaster medicine and public policy. The forum was moderated by one of the most widely recognized disaster medical experts in the world. ⋯ What do you see as a particular issue of concern during the current pandemic?2. What do you see as a particular strength during the current pandemic?3. If you could change one thing about the way that the pandemic response is occurring, what would you change?