1887
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Qatar Medical Journal
  4. Volume 2021, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 2021, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0253-8253
  • EISSN: 2227-0426

Abstract

Despite protective measures such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and a COVID airway management program (CAMP), some emergency physicians will inevitably test positive for COVID. We aim to develop a model predicting weekly numbers of emergency physician COVID converters to aid operations planning.

The data were obtained from the electronic medical record (EMR) used throughout the national healthcare system. Hamad Medical Corporation's internal emergency medicine workforce data were used as a source of information on emergency physician COVID conversion and numbers of emergency physicians completing CAMP training. The study period included the spring and summer months of 2020 and started on March 7 and ran for 21 whole weeks through July 31. Data were extracted from the system's EMR database into a spreadsheet (Excel, Microsoft, Redmond, USA). The statistical software used for all analyses and plots was Stata (version 16.1 MP, StataCorp, College Station, USA). All data definitions were made .

A total of 35 of 250 emergency physicians (14.0%, 95% CI 9.9%–19.9%) converted to a positive real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) during the study's 21-week period. Of these. only two were hospitalized for having respiratory-only disease, and none required respiratory support. Both were discharged within a week of admission. The weekly number of newly COVID-positive emergency physicians was zero and was seen in eight of 21 (38.1%) weeks. The peak weekly counts of six emergency physicians with new COVID-positive were seen in week 14. The mean weekly number of newly COVID-positive emergency physicians was 1.7 ± 1.9, and the median was 1 (IQR, 0 to 3).

This study demonstrates that in the State of Qatar's Emergency Department (ED) system, knowing only four parameters allows the reliable prediction of the number of emergency physicians likely to convert COVID PCR tests within the next week. The results also suggest that attention to the details of minimizing endotracheal intubation (ETI) risk can eliminate the expected finding of the association between ETI numbers and emergency physician COVID numbers.

© 2021 Kodumayil, Kodumayil, Thomas, Pathan, Bhutta, Qureshi, Azad, Harris, Thomas, licensee HBKU Press.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/qmj.2021.44
2021-09-29
2024-11-05
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/qmj/2021/3/qmj.2021.44.html?itemId=/content/journals/qmj.2021.44&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Gómez-Ochoa SA, Franco OH, Rojas LZ, Raguindin PF, Roa-Díaz ZM, Wyssmann BM, et al. COVID-19 in health-care workers: A living systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence risk factors clinical characteristics, and outcomes. Am J Epidemiol. 2021; 190:(1):161–75.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Baumann BM, Cooper RJ, Medak AJ, Lim S, Chinnock B, Frazier R, et al. Emergency physician stressor concerns, and behavioral changes during COVID-19: A longitudinal study. Acad Emerg Med. 2021; 28:(3):314–24.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Gray S, Clough T, McGee Y, Murphy T, Donne R, Poulikakos D, . Occupational exposure of healthcare workers to COVID-19 and infection prevention control measures in haemodialysis facilities in North West of England. Infect Prev Pract. 2021; 3:(3):100150.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Omrani AS, Pathan SA, Thomas SA, Harris TRE, Coyle PV, Thomas CE, et al. Randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial of hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin for virologic cure of non-severe COVID-19. EClinicalMedicine. 2020;29:100645.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Steyerberg EW, Vickers AJ, Cook NR, Gerds T, Gonen M, Obuchowski N, et al. Assessing the performance of prediction models: A framework for traditional and novel measures. Epidemiology. 2010; 21:(1):128–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Du J, Park YT, Theera-Ampornpunt N, McCullough JS, Speedie SM, . The use of count data models in biomedical informatics evaluation research. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2012; 19:(1):39–44.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Hardin JW, Hilbe JM, . Generalized linear models and extensions. 4th ed. College Station TX: Stata Press; 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Hilbe J. Negative binomial regression. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2011. 553 p.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S, Sturdivant RX, . Applied logistic regression. Hoboken New Jersey: Wiley; 2013. Available from: Cover image http://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/jimages/9780470582473.jpg .
  10. Horby P, Lim WS, Emberson JR, Mafham M, Bell JL, Linsell L, et al. Dexamethasone in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 - preliminary report. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 17.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Al Lawati A, Khamis F, Al Habsi S, Al Dalhami K, . Risk of COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers exposed during use of non-invasive ventilation in a tertiary care hospital in Oman. Oman Med J. 2021; 36:(2):e236.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Sahoo S, Hansda U, Mohanty CR, Mishra N. Modified aerosol box for endotracheal intubation: A safeguard for the frontline healthcare workers during COVID pandemic. J Fam Med Prim Care. 2020; 9:(11):5802–3.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Adir Y, Segol O, Kompaniets D, Ziso H, Yaffe Y, Bergman I, et al. COVID-19: Minimising risk to healthcare workers during aerosol-producing respiratory therapy using an innovative constant flow canopy. Eur Respir J. 2020; 55:(5):2001017.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Rahmani F, Mahmoodpoor A, Salmasi S, Ebrahimi Bakhtavar H. Safety of healthcare workers during the airway management in adult and pediatric patients with COVID-19. Anesth Pain Med. 2021; 11:(2):e112508.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Chatterjee P, Anand T, Singh KJ, Rasaily R, Singh R, Das S, et al. Healthcare workers & SARS-CoV-2 infection in India: A case-control investigation in the time of COVID-19. Indian J Med Res. 2020; 151:(5):459–67.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/qmj.2021.44
Loading
Q-DEPICT: Qatar Determining Emergency Physician Incidence of COVID-Positive Testing
Qatar Medical Journal 2021, 44 (2021); https://doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2021.44
/content/journals/qmj.2021.44
/content/journals/qmj.2021.44
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Keyword(s): COVID-19, emergency medicine, Prediction model, Qatar and Testing

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error