During the COVID-19 epidemic, America’s emergency rooms (ER) are the first point of contact for community-based care and hospital. Hospital emergency rooms are well-staffed and prepared to receive and care for COVID-19 patients that need extremely close treatment. As a result, emergency departments need to be strategically redesigned to handle the high patient load and continuously changing demands. Doctors treating patients in these rooms need extreme caution, and the hospital needs to take all necessary precautions to stop the virus from spreading to other people in the area who are not sick. Patients who are in serious condition are treated in hospital emergency rooms. This essay, therefore, discusses how to mitigate the Covid-19 type crisis in America’s emergency rooms.
First, the CDC advises hospitals to create a pandemic readiness committee and conduct thorough, logical planning based on each hospital’s projected Flu Surge rate. It involves; naming a medical director who collaborates closely with emergency management and infection control, reducing irrational trips to emergency departments by using the phone and other internet-connected gadgets, and increasing the bed capacity to accommodate patients with COVID-19 (Toner et al., 2020). Toner et al. (2020) state that a Flu Surge 2.0 can be employed and that the number of hospitals should be changed following the Department of Health and Human Services’ planning assumption of severe crises.
Limiting the nosocomial spread of the virus might help mitigate the Covid-19 crisis. Health professionals are especially exposed to this respiratory illness due to the close contact and overcrowding of patients (Toner et al., 2020). The initial face-to-face engagement between patients and doctors may use video chat over the phone. The hospital may hire more personnel at the busiest times, or existing workers may be redirected. According to Cho et al. (2019), when an emergency department handles more than 50 patients daily, a three-hour thorough cleaning for a contaminated unit might slow the flow of ED check-ups and harm patient treatment. To reduce contamination of the hospital environment, adopting cough and respiratory etiquette and using surgical masks would be vital.
Additionally, coordination with neighboring hospitals is crucial for attracting new employees and volunteers. Those recruited to stop the disease’s spread will start by vaccinating every team member. Shifting the clinical personnel to the area around the hospital and offering free medical childcare for ill families will help reduce the problems in the emergency room (Cho et al., 2019). Consequently, the workforce shortage might arise due to illness or family care as the Covid-19 outbreak spreads. The medical facilities should be ready and have strategies in place for staff shortages, as well as for their safety and the provision of tools for dealing with stress and anxiety.
The American government should make sure there is a constant supply of pharmaceuticals, testing and screening tools, and the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). This will enable earlier detection of Covid-19 existence in a particular group by testing and creating an appropriate strategy for its handling (Whiteside et al., 2020). Making PPE available would also help prevent the medical staff from acquiring the virus and ease the problem of overcrowding in the emergency departments.
Finally, a resilient leadership and management team may be developed through restructuring healthcare governance at the federal, state, and local levels. Restructuring healthcare leadership would ensure that all areas in the United States are taken care of by providing proper measures to curb the challenges that might arise from Covid-19 (Whiteside et al., 2020). Additionally, managers and leaders have a significant influence on the essential medical choices that may have an impact on the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures.
In conclusion, the fight against COVID-19’s spread in the United States and worldwide has relied heavily on emergency departments. Detection and isolation of infected individuals, adequate patient and medical personnel protection, reporting, efficient care, and education of society are all part of the COVID-19 pandemic response in multiple emergency rooms. The framework for responding to and comprehending COVID-19 is evolving quickly. Thus, the effectiveness of the overall process depends on the continuous and efficient mitigating measures discussed above.
Reference
Cho, M., Song, M., Yeom, S. R., Wang, I. J., & Choi, B. K. (2019). Developing process performance indicators for emergency room processes. In International Conference on Business Process Management (pp. 520-531). Springer, Cham.
Toner, E., Waldhorn, R., & Washer, L. (2020). How should U.S. hospitals prepare for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(9), 621–622.
Whiteside, T., Kane, E., Aljohani, B., Alsamman, M., & Pourmand, A. (2020). Redesigning emergency department operations amidst a viral pandemic. The American journal of emergency medicine, 38(7), 1448-1453.