Reduced turnaround times through multi-sectoral community collaboration during the first surge of SARS-CoV-2 and associated effect on patient care and hospital operations
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Abstract
In March 2020, an influx of admissions in COVID-19 positive patients threatened to overwhelm healthcare facilities in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Exacerbating this problem was an overall shortage of diagnostic testing capability at that time, resulting in a delay in time-to-result return. An improvement in diagnostic testing availability and timeliness was necessary to improve the allocation of resources and ultimate throughput of patients. The management of a COVID-19 positive patient or patient under investigation requires infection control measures that can quickly consume personal protective equipment (PPE) stores and personnel available to treat these patients. Critical shortages of both PPE and personnel also negatively impact care in patients admitted with non-COVID-19 illnesses.
Methods
A multisectoral partnership of healthcare providers, facilities and academicians created a molecular diagnostic lab within an academic research facility dedicated to testing inpatients and healthcare personnel for SARS-CoV-2. The purpose of the laboratory was to provide a temporary solution to the East Baton Rouge Parish healthcare community until individual facilities were self-sustaining in testing capabilities. We describe the partnership and the impacts of this endeavor by developing a model derived from a combination of data sources, including electronic health records, hospital operations, and state and local resources.
Findings
Our model demonstrates two important principles: the impact of reduced turnaround times (TAT) on potential differences in inpatient population numbers for COVID-19 and savings in PPE attributed to the more rapid TAT.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.17.20156158: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization That is, 16% of admissions would be assigned a LoS of 1 day; 44% had a LoS defined by a randomly chosen number from a uniform distribution with a min of 2 days and a max of 6 days, etc. (details in Supplemental Table S1). Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources In addition, data and patient information were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at LSUHSC School of Public Health – New Orleans, with data entry performed by volunteers and team members from the hospitals and clinical partners 15,16. RE…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.17.20156158: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization That is, 16% of admissions would be assigned a LoS of 1 day; 44% had a LoS defined by a randomly chosen number from a uniform distribution with a min of 2 days and a max of 6 days, etc. (details in Supplemental Table S1). Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources In addition, data and patient information were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at LSUHSC School of Public Health – New Orleans, with data entry performed by volunteers and team members from the hospitals and clinical partners 15,16. REDCapsuggested: (REDCap, RRID:SCR_003445)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.
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