Emergency department ‘outbreak rostering’ to meet challenges of COVID-19

Abstract

<jats:p>The COVID-19 outbreak has posed unique challenges to the emergency department rostering. Additional infection control, the possibility of quarantine of staff and minimising contact among staff have significant impact on the work of doctors in the emergency department. Infection of a single healthcare worker may require quarantine of close contacts at work. This may thus affect a potentially large number of staff. As such, we developed an Outbreak Response Roster. This Outbreak Response Roster had fixed teams of doctors working in rotation, each team that staff the emergency department in turn. Members within teams remained constant and were near equally balanced in terms of manpower and seniority of doctors. Each team worked fixed 12 hours shifts with as no overlapping of staff or staggering of shifts. Handovers between shifts were kept as brief as possible. All these were measures to limit interactions among healthcare workers. With the implementation of the roster, measures were also taken to bolster the psychological wellness of healthcare workers. With face-to-face contact limited, we also had to maintain clear, open channels for communication through technology and continue educating residents through innovative means.</jats:p>

The impact of a segregated team roster on obstetric and gynecology services in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic in a tertiary care center in India

“…It is believed that the present study is the first from India on emergency rostering for patient care during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Recently, there have been two reports from Singapore on an emergency roster system aimed at making teams segregate HCWs as a national prevention and response measure 7,8 . In neurosurgery, the department was divided into two completely segregated teams to work on alternate weeks.…”

Modeling Emergency Department crowding: Restoring the balance between demand for and supply of emergency medicine

“…The hospital is part of the Singhealth Regional Health System (RHS) which covers a population of more than 1.1 million people and handles more than 4 million patient visits yearly. The hospital-based ED cares for more than 140’000 patient visits annually, with about 350 visits per day in 2019 [ 35 , 36 ]. The ED is equipped with 25 specialist EPs who work an average of 180 clinical shift hours per 28 days, along with roughly 40 non-specialists who clock an average of 216 clinical shift hours in the same period [ 35 ].…”

Regular versus extended shift outbreak roster in the emergency department and its impact on staff well-being

“…Emerg Med J August 2020 Vol 37 No 8 Letter Regular versus extended shift outbreak roster in the emergency department and its impact on staff well-being An outbreak response roster during pandemic plays a crucial role, with a recent article 1 suggesting a 12-hour extended shift model, aiming to limit interactions between healthcare workers. In Singapore, a typical ED shift is around 8-9 hours.…”

“…An outbreak response roster during pandemic plays a crucial role, with a recent article 1 suggesting a 12-hour extended shift model, aiming to limit interactions between healthcare workers. In Singapore, a typical ED shift is around 8–9 hours.…”