Publication details
Krizový režim ochranných pomůcek během pandemie nemoci covid-19
| Title in English | Protective equipment crisis mode during the covid-19 pandemic |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| Citation | |
| Description | Introduction and method: In order to understand the impact of the lack of personal protective equipment at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech Society for Hospital Epidemiology and Hygiene (SNEH) in collaboration with the Department of Public Health of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University carried out a questionnaire survey in 2022 in which representatives of individual health care facilities could share their experiences with the availability of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic and how they dealt with the lack of PPE. In particular, the aim was to obtain evidence for the evaluation of the current pandemic and for the modification of the pandemic preparedness plan. The questionnaire was addressed to health facility staff involved in infection prevention and control at their workplace, with only one questionnaire completed per health facility. The questionnaire was completed anonymously, in electronic form and the link for completion was made available to SNEH members and participants of professional events on the subject. Due to the small number of respondents, the processing of the results focused on the interest of the answers, which in themselves have significant explanatory value. Correlation analyses were not performed for the above reason. Results: A total of 19 facilities were hospitals with acute beds. The responses show, among other things, that in 17 of the total number of health care facilities surveyed (i.e. 44%) respirators were used in a non-standard way at the time of critical shortage, in 6 of them one or more decontamination methods were used: UVC radiation (3 times), wiping or spraying with chemical disinfectant (2 times), autoclaving (3 times), sterilization with low-temperature plasma (1 time). In facilities where respirators were used repeatedly over multiple shifts (7 responses), only 1 case was determined as to the number of repeated uses. In the other 6 facilities, this number was not determined. Respondents were also asked about the usefulness of the information sources they were using at the time. The experiences of colleagues from other health care facilities, their own knowledge, and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were most frequently identified as very helpful. On the other hand, information from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic was most frequently identified as rather unhelpful or even very unhelpful. Conclusion: Although this is a limited sample of all registered health care facilities in the Czech Republic, the findings indicate the seriousness of the situation when introducing personal crisis regimes. |