Articles: personal-protective-equipment.
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2020
ReviewContributing factors to personal protective equipment shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study investigates the forces that contributed to severe shortages in personal protective equipment in the US during the COVID-19 crisis. Problems from a dysfunctional costing model in hospital operating systems were magnified by a very large demand shock triggered by acute need in healthcare and panicked marketplace behavior that depleted domestic PPE inventories. ⋯ We conclude that market prices are not appropriate mechanisms for rationing inputs to health because health is a public good. Removing the profit motive for purchasing PPE in hospital costing models, strengthening government capacity to maintain and distribute stockpiles, developing and enforcing regulations, and pursuing strategic industrial policy to reduce US dependence on imported PPE will help to better protect healthcare workers with adequate supplies of PPE.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2020
Personal Protective Equipment in the Paediatric Emergency Department during the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimating requirements based on staff numbers and patient presentations.
To estimate the personal protective equipment (PPE) required in a paediatric ED during the COVID-19 pandemic comparing the use per patient to use per patient zone, based on the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) guidelines in place at the time of the study. ⋯ This study has demonstrated the considerable requirement for PPE in a paediatric ED, which varies according to presentation type and the background prevalence of COVID-19 in the community.
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Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · Dec 2020
We must rigorously follow basic infection control procedures to protect our healthcare workers from SARS-CoV-2.
Because severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads easily and healthcare workers are at increased risk of both acquiring and transmitting infection, all healthcare facilities must rapidly and rigorously implement the full hierarchy of established infection controls: source control (removal or mitigation of infection sources), engineering and environmental controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment.