«Today the ER is safer than the supermarket. All medical personnel are vaccinated and all patients undergo buffer“. The message of the national secretary of the Italian Society of Emergency-Urgency Medicine, Mario Guarino, is to say that we must no longer be afraid to go to hospital when needed. The creation of a double differentiated path for the management of Covid and non-Covid patients has made it possible to avoid infections in the hospital environment and to secure the activity in the wards. The filter access is represented by the pre-triage area, where body temperature is measured and a check list is administered aimed at identifying cases with suspected infection, which will be subjected to a rapid antigen test.
Filters at the entrance
“If the result is negative, symptomatic patients have to do a molecular swab. If, on the other hand, it is positive, the patient is immediately isolated and the diagnosis confirmed with a swab, blood tests and chest X-rays »explains Guarino. The process may vary according to regional and corporate protocols. A molecular swab can be done directly in case of a potentially infected patient (with symptoms such as cough, dyspnoea, asthenia, fever). Or all incoming patients can be tested with a rapid antigenic swab regardless of the clinical picture and any close contact with virus positive people in the previous 14 days. All patients with negative results in the questionnaire and / or tests are accepted in the “clean” circuit (ie separate from infected patients), where they are evaluated and treated. While the more codes urgent they are immediately introduced to the emergency room and tested. It is forbidden to stay inside the emergency room for children escorts, who will be informed about the patient’s state of health over the phone. Except for exceptions, when the presence of the relative is authorized by the head of the department for non self-sufficient people or people with severe disabilities. A molecular test or vaccination certificate may be requested from the accompanying person. It is essential to maintain the safety distance and the use of the mask. Before each hospital admission each patient (and relative caregiver) must always be subjected to a swab.
“It is not enough to have been vaccinated” underlines Antonio Voza, director of the Emergency Department of the Humanitas hospital in Milan. “Even vaccinated people can become infected even if studies show that the contagiousness of those who received the vaccine is reduced”.
The effects of fear
In 2020, due to Covid, the life-saving procedures to the heart performed were on average 20% less than in 2019: from coronary scans (minus 18.6%) to coronary angioplasty in case of heart attack (minus 16.5%), to mitral valve replacements (minus 13.5 %) and transcatheter aortic valve (minus 8.5%), at the closure of the formal patent oval (minus 20.7%). These data were collected by the Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology from hemodynamic laboratories throughout Italy.
July 5, 2021 (change July 5, 2021 | 17:30)
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