Articles: pandemics.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 2023
Measuring the Impact of ICU Strain on Mortality, After-Hours Discharge, Discharge Delay, Interhospital Transfer, and Readmission in Australia With the Activity Index.
ICU resource strain leads to adverse patient outcomes. Simple, well-validated measures of ICU strain are lacking. Our objective was to assess whether the "Activity index," an indicator developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, was a valid measure of ICU strain. ⋯ The Activity index is a simple and valid measure that identifies ICUs in which increasing strain leads to progressively worse patient outcomes.
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We describe emergency department (ED) visit volume, illness severity, and crowding metrics from the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through mid-2022. ⋯ ED visit volumes fell early in the pandemic and have only partly recovered. Despite lower volumes, ED crowding has increased. This issue is magnified in psychiatric patients.
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The global pandemic of COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has resulted in widespread alterations to public health measures worldwide. This observational study aimed to assess the clinical features and results of respiratory failure in patients with severe COVID-19. A single-center observational study was performed at a Chinese hospital between November 1, 2022, and February 31, 2023. ⋯ Respiratory failure combined with COVID-19 infection may lead to higher 30-day mortality (16.36% vs 7.14%, P = .005), longer hospital stays (22.5 ± 5.9 vs 12.8 ± 4.2, P < .001), larger hospitalization costs (P < .001), and increased hospitalization complications, such as pulmonary embolism (10.30% vs 4.76%, P = .039), deep vein thrombosis (33.33% vs 18.57%, P = .001), incidence of 7-day delirium (69.70% vs 46.19%, P < .001), and respiratory failure (38.18% vs 24.77%, P = .005). If respiratory failure occurs while the patient is infected with COVID-19, treatment and prognosis worsen. Our understanding of COVID-19 and the care we provide to patients with respiratory failure is crucial to better prepare for a potential pandemic.