Nursing homes have become -ground zero‖ for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in North America, with homes experiencing widespread outbreaks resulting in severe morbidity and mortality among its residents. This manuscript describes a 371bed acute care hospital's emergency response to a 126-bed nursing home experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak in Toronto, Canada. Like other health care system responses to COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes, this hospital-nursing home partnership can be characterized in several phases: 1) engagement, relationship and trust-building; 2)
Aims
This manuscript aims to describe one acute care hospital's ICU journey during the COVID‐19 pandemic and how fundamental care was central to the implementation of team‐based models of care.
Background
Over the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic, team‐based and alternative models of care are being employed to manage and address global shortages and surge capacity. Employing these alternate models of care required attention to ensure fundamental care needs of patients were being met.
Design/Method
The following paper describes an ICU's journey of focusing on the delivery of the fundamentals of care through the implementation of team‐based models of care to address the surge in patient care demands experienced in response to our global pandemic.
Conclusions
The implementation of an evidence‐informed approach to optimizing models of care and staffing in the ICU amid the evolving COVID‐19 waves in one acute‐care hospital is provided. This local approach focused on meeting patients' fundamental care needs throughout the necessary introduction of team‐based care models and staffing changes and drew from evolving evidence, the ILC Fundamentals of Care Framework, and regulatory guidance.
Controlling the Spread in the Emergency Department In an effort to deal with the transmission and onset of illness within health care and community settings, the province of Ontario designated a Provincial Operations Centre (POC),
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