Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the dynamics of Emergency Departments (EDs) worldwide and has accentuated the need for tackling different operational inefficiencies that decrease the quality of care provided to infected patients. The EDs continue to struggle against this outbreak by implementing strategies maximizing their performance within an uncertain healthcare environment. The efforts, however, have remained insufficient in view of the growing number of admissions and increased severity of the coronavirus disease. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to review the literature on process improvement interventions focused on increasing the ED response to the current COVID-19 outbreak to delineate future research lines based on the gaps detected in the practical scenario. Therefore, we applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to perform a review containing the research papers published between December 2019 and April 2021 using ISI Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, IEEE, Google Scholar, and Science Direct databases. The articles were further classified taking into account the research domain, primary aim, journal, and publication year. A total of 65 papers disseminated in 51 journals were concluded to satisfy the inclusion criteria. Our review found that most applications have been directed towards predicting the health outcomes in COVID-19 patients through machine learning and data analytics techniques. In the overarching pandemic, healthcare decision makers are strongly recommended to integrate artificial intelligence techniques with approaches from the operations research (OR) and quality management domains to upgrade the ED performance under social-economic restrictions.
Highlights
The SARS-CoV−2 (COVID-19) disease first appeared on 30 December 2019, in Wuhan, China [1], and continues to affect the global population in the near future
December 2019 and April 2021 evidencing process improvement methodologies implemented by decision makers, policymakers, emergency departments (EDs) administrators, practitioners, and researchers to upgrade the response of EDs when managing COVID-19 patients
We considered manuscripts evidencing the implementation of an industrial engineering approach for increasing the operational response of a real emergency department during the current COVID-19 outbreak
Summary
The SARS-CoV−2 (COVID-19) disease first appeared on 30 December 2019, in Wuhan, China [1], and continues to affect the global population in the near future. The clinical signs of COVID-19 range from unapparent non-symptomatic infection to severe pneumonia and death [2]. The swift and unpredicted spread of COVID19 throughout the world in nearly four months in 2020 has significantly influenced the emergency departments (EDs) of the affected countries in view of the large, irregular, and overwhelming number of infected people to attend. The COVID-19 impact is even more severe in regions with infrastructure restrictions and low preparedness in their EDs to address disasters, which has contributed to greater infection and mortality rates in contrast with more developed countries [3]. 164.5 million cases and 3.4 million deaths in the world [4] without considering the huge drain on the financial resources of emergency care systems.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
