Articles: pandemics.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
The role of Canadian family physicians in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Context: In Canada, most medical care is delivered through front line, first contact primary care. As nations traverse the most significant health event in a century, it is important to understand how primary care has been engaged in the challenge. Objective: Assess the patterns of direct clinical patient care involvement of Canadian family physicians (FPs) in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by province, age, remuneration model, and practice setting. ⋯ Conclusions: While most family physicians have been involved in the COVID-19 response, discrepancies exist across jurisdiction, ages, remuneration types, and practice models. These results suggest that there were obstacles to the full involvement of Canada's primary care system in the response to the pandemic. Evidence generated by this study points to factors that could enable a more responsive future primary health care system.
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Annals of family medicine · Apr 2022
Increased use of birth interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic?: An exploratory qualitative study.
Context: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic policies have been implemented to limit disease transmission and manage patient flow in clinical settings, including perinatal healthcare settings. Emergent literature indicates increased medicalization of childbirth during the pandemic, however experiences of pregnancy and birth remain unexplored. Understanding the impact of pandemic policies on healthcare practices is important for planning better care in future. ⋯ Conclusions: For some people in Canada, giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic entails medicalization and implementation of non-medically necessary interventions. If healthcare systems are increasing intervention use at the same time that the "safety net" intended to catch the complications from those interventions is reduced, then birthing people are being exposed to extra risk precisely when it is most important to minimize it. Continuity of care throughout pregnancy and postpartum, labour support persons, and non-medical forms of care are all essential components of safe maternal healthcare, however pandemic perinatal care demonstrates that they are not viewed as such.
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Revista médica de Chile · Apr 2022
[Description of the operation of a home hospitalization unit in a public hospital at Santiago, Chile].
This article briefly discloses what home hospitalization consists of, its different models of care, and the benefits and difficulties associated with it. We also describe the operation of the home hospitalization unit of the Padre Hurtado Hospital in Santiago de Chile and the role it took in the context of the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, specifically between March and August of the year 2020. We aim to share our experience with this emerging form of hospitalization that is already working in Chilean public hospitals. We also hope that this hospitalization modality will continue to grow over the years.
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Revista médica de Chile · Apr 2022
[Features of patients admitted with COVID-19 to a Chilean regional hospital during the first stages of the pandemic].
The COVID-19 pandemic posed a great strain in health services. ⋯ Viral pneumonia is the main cause of hospitalization for COVID-19, usually extensive and bilateral. The greater severity and poor prognosis of these patients are mainly related to comorbidities.