Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective was to assess anxiety and burnout levels, home life changes, and measures to relieve stress of U.S. academic emergency medicine (EM) physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic acceleration phase. ⋯ During the acceleration phase, the COVID-19 pandemic has induced substantial workplace and home anxiety in academic EM physicians, and their exposure during work has had a major impact on their home lives. Measures cited to decrease stress include enhanced availability of PPE, rapid turnaround testing at provider discretion, and clear communication about COVID-19 protocol changes.
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Our objective was to evaluate patient-reported oxygen saturation (SpO2 ) using pulse oximetry as a home monitoring tool for patients with initially nonsevere COVID-19 to identify need for hospitalization. ⋯ This study found that home pulse oximetry monitoring identifies need for hospitalization in initially nonsevere COVID-19 patients when a cutoff of SpO2 92% is used. Half of patients who ended up hospitalized had SpO2 < 92% without worsening symptoms. Home SpO2 monitoring also reduces unnecessary ED revisits.