Abstract
Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Spain, almost 22% of healthcare professionals have been infected. Among the main causes are exposure during the care of suspected patients and asymptomatic patients, which caused a greater lack of protection in some cases, and to the global shortage of personal protective equipment due to the strong demand for it. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a teleconsultation protocol with patients who had respiratory symptoms in the reduction of the consumption of personal protective equipment (PPE) in a hospital emergency service (HES) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a descriptive and retrospective study that analyzes the implementation of a teleconsultation protocol with patients with respiratory problems treated in the HES at the Hospital de Poniente (Almeria), between 18 March and 30 April 2020. In the selected study period, 5353 patients were treated in the HES of the Hospital de Poniente; of these, 15.43% showed respiratory symptoms and were referred to the Respiratory Circuit, of which 42.2% did so via teleconsultation. Sixty-six cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed, 57.6% were male, and the median age was 71 years old. The main disease related was pneumonia (89.4%), symptoms more frequent were cough (77.3%), fever (77.3%), and dyspnea (60.6%). Lastly, 56.1% of the patients that attended had one or more comorbidities, high blood pressure (53%), and diabetes (36.4%), which became the main risk factors. The results showed that the implementation of teleconsultation in the HES reduced the possibility of infection and allowed for a more efficient consumption of personal protective equipment.
Highlights
Since 31 December 2019, when the WHO was alerted about a case of pneumonia of unknown cause in the city of Wuhan, located in China, the life of millions of people around the world suffered a 180-degree turn [1,2]
Among the main reasons for infection, we find the absence of personal protection equipment (PPE) at the beginning of the pandemic, due to the worldwide shortage of this equipment
The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a teleconsultation protocol with patients who had been addressed with respiratory symptoms, in the reduction of the consumption of protective equipment (PPE) in a hospital emergency service (HES) during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Since 31 December 2019, when the WHO was alerted about a case of pneumonia of unknown cause in the city of Wuhan, located in China, the life of millions of people around the world suffered a 180-degree turn [1,2] From this moment on, the propagation of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the Healthcare 2020, 8, 357; doi:10.3390/healthcare8040357 www.mdpi.com/journal/healthcare. A person can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 due to contact with an infected person [2,4,5], most of the time, the transmission of the disease is provoked by asymptomatic patients. The disease is fundamentally propagated through droplets that are ejected when an infected person coughs or exhales This is why it is important to maintain a safe distance (1.5 m) with other people [6,7,8,9]
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