Objective: The Hospital Virgen de la Poveda, (Villa del Prado, Spain), assists patients in need of Continuous medical care, Rehabilitation or Palliative care; these patients have many risk-factors of COVID-19 morbility and mortality. With both healthcare humanization and contagion-prevention purposes, in July 2020 two patient visit protocols were implemented. The objective of this study is to describe these measures qualitatively and quantitatively.
Methods: A context is provided regarding COVID-19 measures in this institution. The content and follow-up indicators of visit protocols (number of visits, of outbreaks, inpatients, etc.) and of their context were provided. The empirical outbreak probabilities were calculated, and hypothesis contrast was performed against no-visits (0%) and no visit-control (7-day cumulative incidence/habitant).
Results: Two protocols were created. Accompanying was applied to Palliative Care cases (no appointments required, no time limits), and a short visits protocol was applied to the other patients (appointments for 1 weekly visit for 1-2 persons were given and visits last up to 45 minutes). In both protocols, visitors with symptoms or fever or particularly susceptible were forbidden entrance. Between July and April 2021, 4,759 short-visit appointments were given and 7,544 total visits took place (short visits, accompanying, exceptions). An outbreak was possibly attributed to short visits (probability=0.021% [CI95%: 0.0005-0.1171%]) and two outbreaks were possibly attributed to visits globally (probability=0.0265% [IC95%: 0.0032-0.0958%]).
Conclusions: Elaborating adapted, applicable and prospectively-evaluated protocols with prevention measures at multiple levels might succeed in minimizing the risk of adverse events (in this case, COVID-19 outbreaks).
Objetivo: El Hospital Virgen de la Poveda atiende a pacientes con necesidades de Cuidados Continuos, Rehabilitación o Cuidados Paliativos, que presentan factores de riesgo de morbilidad y mortalidad por COVID-19. Para humanizar la asistencia sanitaria, se implementaron en julio de 2020 protocolos de visitas que minimizasen el riesgo de contagio. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar una descripción cualitativa y cuantitativa de tales medidas.
Metodos: Se contextualizó el problema de las medidas ante el COVID-19 de esta institución. Se recogió el contenido e indicadores de seguimiento de los protocolos de visitas (número de visitas, de brotes, ocupación, etc.) y de contexto. Se calcularon probabilidades empíricas de brote y contraste de hipótesis: vs. no-visitas (0%), y vs. no-control (incidencia acumulada); (distribución de Poisson).
Resultados: Se crearon dos protocolos: acompañamiento (para Cuidados Paliativos, sin citas y sin límite a la duración); y visitas cortas con cita previa (para los demás, limitadas a 45 minutos, 1-2 personas por paciente, 1 visita semanal). En ambos casos se controlaron el acceso de personas con síntomas o especialmente susceptibles. Entre julio 2020 y abril de 2021 se dieron 4.759 citas para visitas cortas (con 1 posible brote atribuido, probabilidad de brote=0,021% [IC95%: 0,0005-0,1171%]) y se produjeron en total 7.544 visitas (citadas, acompañamiento y excepcionales; con 2 posibles brotes atribuidos, probabilidad de brote=0,0265% [IC95%: 0,0032-0,0958%]).
Conclusiones: La elaboración de protocolos con medidas de prevención a múltiples niveles, adaptados, aplicables y con un adecuado seguimiento, puede conseguir minimizar el riesgo de aparición de eventos negativos (brotes en este caso).
Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 prevention; Disease Transmission; Healthcare Humanization (DDCS050250); Hospital Management (D006739); Hospital visits; Infectious; Long Term Care Facilities; Mid-term Care Hospital; Non pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs); SARS-CoV-2; Spain.