Articles: pandemics.
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Multicenter Study
Communication and Virtual Visiting for Families of Patients in Intensive Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A UK National Survey.
Rationale: Restriction or prohibition of family visiting intensive care units (ICUs) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic poses substantial barriers to communication and family- and patient-centered care. Objectives: To understand how communication among families, patients, and the ICU team was enabled during the pandemic. The secondary objectives were to understand strategies used to facilitate virtual visiting and associated benefits and barriers. ⋯ Common barriers to virtual visiting were related to insufficient staff time, rapid implementation of videoconferencing technology, and challenges associated with family members' ability to use videoconferencing technology or access a device. Conclusions: Virtual visiting and dedicated communication teams were common COVID-19 pandemic innovations addressing the restrictions to family ICU visiting, and they resulted in valuable benefits in terms of patient recovery and staff morale. Enhancing access and developing a more consistent approach to family virtual ICU visits could improve the quality of care, both during and outside of pandemic conditions.
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Multicenter Study
A Multicenter Evaluation of the Feasibility, Patient/Provider Satisfaction, and Value of Virtual Spine Consultation during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
To assess the feasibility, patient/provider satisfaction, and perceived value of telehealth spine consultation after rapid conversion from traditional in-office visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ This is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility and high patient/provider satisfaction of virtual spine surgical consultation, and appropriate reimbursement and balanced regulation for spine telehealth care is essential to continue this existing work.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
A tale of two cities: Residents' operative experience in the United Kingdom and Germany during COVID-19.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on residents' operative training. Our aim was to identify the proportion of procedures performed by residents across 2 neurosurgical centers (1 in the United Kingdom and 1 in Germany) during the pandemic-affected months of March 2020-May 2020, inclusive, compared with March 2019-May 2019, inclusive. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the volume of operating by neurosurgical residents in the United Kingdom center, whereas residents in the German center performed more procedures compared with 2019. This finding may reflect variations in national practice on maintaining surgical activities and provision of critical care beds during the first wave of the pandemic.
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Limited existing data suggest that the novel COVID-19 may increase risk of VTE, but information from large, ethnically diverse populations with appropriate control participants is lacking. ⋯ Among ethnically diverse hospitalized adults, COVID-19 infection increased the risk of VTE, and selected patient characteristics were associated with higher thromboembolic risk in the setting of COVID-19.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Sep 2021
Multicenter StudyTrauma care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands: a level 1 trauma multicenter cohort study.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused major healthcare challenges worldwide resulting in an exponential increase in the need for hospital- and intensive care support for COVID-19 patients. As a result, surgical care was restricted to urgent cases of surgery. However, the care for trauma patients is not suitable for reduction or delayed treatment. The influence of the pandemic on the burden of disease of trauma care remains to be elucidated. ⋯ The burden of disease and healthcare consumption of trauma patients remained high during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of this study can be used to optimize the use of hospital capacity and anticipate health care planning in future outbreaks.