Objective:
Emergency Medicine being a young specialty in India, we aimed to assess the level of disaster preparedness and planning strategies among various academic Emergency Departments (EDs) across India during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
A cross-sectional multicentric survey was developed and disseminated online to various academic EDs in India and followed up over a period of 8 weeks. All results were analysed using descriptive statistics.
Results:
28 Academic Emergency Medicine Departments responded to the study. Compared to Pre-COVID period, COVID-19 pandemic has led to 90% of centres developing separate triage system with dedicated care areas for COVID suspect/infected in 78.6% centres with nearly 70% utilizing separate transportation pathways. Strategizing and executing the Institutional COVID-19 treatment protocol in 80% institutes were done by Emergency Physicians. Training exercises for airway management and PPE usage were seen in 93% and 80% centres respectively. Marked variation in recommended PPE usage were observed across EDs in India.
Conclusions:
Our study highlights the high variance in the level of preparedness response among various EDs across India during the pandemic. Preparedness for different EDs across India needs to be individually assessed and planned according to the needs and resources available.
The current global severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has magnified the risk to healthcare providers when inititiating airway management, and safe tracheal intubation has become of paramount importance. Mitigation of risk to frontline providers requires airway management to be an orchestrated exercise based on training and purposeful simulation. Role allocation and closed-loop communication form the foundation of this exercise. We describe a methodical, 10-step approach from decision-making and meticulous drug and equipment choices to donning of personal protective equipment, and procedural concerns. This bundled approach will help reduce unplanned actions, which in turn may reduce the risk of aerosol transmission during airway management in resource-limited settings.
A 62-year-old man was referred to the emergency department with retrosternal chest pain for 4 days. Coronary angiogram and ECG showed no occlusion of coronary vessels. Contrast-enhanced CT of thorax showed b/l pleural effusion, pneumomediastinum, right hydropneumothorax, with the underlying collapse of lungs and intercostal drainage tube in situ. Intercostal tube showed purulent discharge. Repeat oral contrast did not show any leakage through the upper gastrointestinal tract, and the patient is admitted to the intensive care unit following endotracheal intubation. However, an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, performed at the bedside in the intensive care unit unexpectedly revealed a foreign body (piece of coconut shell) impacted at the lower oesophagus. The foreign body was removed successfully using oesophagoscopy, and the patient made a full recovery following multidisciplinary teamwork between critical care and surgeons.
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