Hospital-based autonomous pre-clinical screening of COVID-19: An emergency triage using a vital signs recording system, Paris-Ile de France region

This article has been Reviewed by the following groups

Read the full article

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic toll worldwide on the populations but also has been essentially supported by the existing public health system, particularly hospital-based emergency wards and intensive care units. In France, the first cases were identified on the 24th of January 2020. The first epidemic sprout emerged in the Eastern part of the country and spread in two weeks towards the center to the Paris-region where it peaked on the 14th of April 2020. In Paris and the region around it, the intensity of the epidemic has increased significantly to have a strong impact on all public and private hospital systems in a few weeks. During France’s 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, a private hospital went into a major organizational change of its Emergency Department which mainly included the use of a Telemedicine Booth for vitals automatic recording during triage procedures.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to share a unique exerience centered on the use of a Telemedicine Booth as a screening process during an epidemic.

Researche design: The present study is a case report describing the organizational scheme adopted by the hospital and discusses the data of 1844 patients that attended the facility over a month and the results of a questionaire survey adressed to the Emergency Department personnel.

Study sample: The study population is the population that Data where collecte.

Data collection and analysis: Quantitative activity indicators' data were collected with a specific triage register, patient management software and the Telemedicine Booth activity software and were analysed with basic statistics.

Results and Conclusions: Among the 1844 patients, 766 were engaged in an automated triage process supported by a Telemedicine Booth. Patients' clinical characteristics are comparable to those found in international literature during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of the Telemedicine Booth as a screening process facilitated patients’ flow. It usefully participated in the patient rapid orientation, relieving the hospital emergency department, actively contributes in a safe and secure environment highly trusted by the hospital staff and health workers. To our knowledge, the Telemedicine Booth use as a screening process during an epidemic constitutes the first contribution to such an innovative approach.

Article activity feed

  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.17.20133934: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Strategic engagement: Triage the act of prioritizing patients’ access and determining severity, usually performed by a trained nurse, was considered strategical.
    Triage
    suggested: (TRIAGE, RRID:SCR_016609)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.