Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Aug 2020
A Positive-Pressure Environment Disposable Shield (PEDS) for COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health care system resources and reduced the availability of life-sustaining and medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) though the combination of increased demand and disrupted manufacturing supply chains. As a result of these shortages, many health care providers have temporarily used largely untested, improvised PPE (iPPE). Lack of quality control for makeshift PPE and frequent repurposing of used items to conserve supplies increase both the risk of provider infection and nosocomial spread to uninfected patients. ⋯ The unit was successfully deployed in Taiwan during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, and again during the COVID-19 pandemic. The iPPE worn directly by the health care workers (HCWs) can be donned prior to patient contact in the presence of an air source. This strategy may be more protective than a covering placed over the patient in an aerosol-generating environment, which requires the HCW to be in close contact with the patient prior to securing the protective device.
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Practice Guideline
Guidance for resumption of routine electrodiagnostic testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world accommodates to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, routine in-person medical services are resuming. The resumption of non urgent electrodiagnostic (EDX) testing faces unique challenges due to the long duration of the procedure and direct close contact with patients, including studies with risk of exposure to oropharyngeal secretions. We provide consensus guidance for resumption of EDX testing, addressing scheduling, patient arrival and registration, use of personal protective equipment, COVID-19 screening and testing, the performance of EDX testing in outpatient and inpatient settings, cleaning and maintenance of the EDX equipment and laboratory, balancing trainee safety and training requirements, and patient care issues. These are broad recommendations that need to be adapted to local COVID-19 risks, institutional guidelines and policies, and changing federal, state, and local regulations, and to changes in the pandemic over time.