Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open
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J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open · Sep 2020
Rapid reorganization of the Milan metropolitan public safety answering point operations during the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.
To quantify how the first public announcement of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy affected a metropolitan region's emergency medical services (EMS) call volume and how rapid introduction of alternative procedures at the public safety answering point (PSAP) managed system resources. ⋯ With sudden escalating EMS call volumes, rapid reorganization of dispatch operations using tailored algorithms and specially assigned personnel can protect EMS system resources by optimizing patient dispositions, controlling ambulance allocations and mitigating hospital impact. Prudent population-based disaster planning should strongly consider pre-establishing similar highly coordinated medical taskforce contingencies.
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J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open · Sep 2020
Dynamic emergency department response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic: the experience of a tertiary hospital in Singapore.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed large stressors on emergency departments (EDs) worldwide. As the pandemic progressed, EDs faced changing patient epidemiology and numbers. ⋯ The principles behind our response include guiding ED operations with data, enhancing infection control practices, and being prepared to transform areas of the ED to care for different groups of patients. Our experience can serve to guide other EDs in planning their response to surge capacity and ED operations during such pandemics.