Experience from a COVID-19 screening centre of a tertiary care institution

  1. Somen Kumar Pradhan
  2. Dinesh Prasad Sahu
  3. Durgesh Prasad Sahoo
  4. Arvind Kumar Singh
  5. Binod Kumar Patro
  6. Sachidananda Mohanty

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a significant public health concern across the whole world, including India. In the absence of any specific treatment or vaccine against COVID-19, the role of efficient testing and reporting has been uncontested so far as the number of cases is rising daily. In order to strengthen the screening activities and to prevent nosocomial infection, facility-based screening centres have been designed and operated at various levels of healthcare, including tertiary care institutions.

Methods:

The present study has been planned with an objective to understand the patient profile and evaluate the functioning of COVID-19 screening OPD (CS-OPD) at a tertiary care hospital. In this hospital-based retrospective study, data from individuals visiting the COVID-19 screening OPD during the period from 17 th March 2020 to 31 st July 2020 were collected. We documented and analysed relevant demographic, epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the patients.

Results:

A total of 10,735 patients visited the COVID-19 screening OPD during the defined study period of which 3652 individuals were tested. The majority of the patients, i.e., 65.67% (7050) were male and in the 15–59 years age group (84.68%). The most common symptoms among patients visiting CS-OPD was cough (9.86%). Of the total, 17.17% (1843) of patients reported to the CS-OPD with a contact history of COVID-19–positive patient. On the other hand, 13.49% (1448) of patients were with either domestic or international travel history. The overall testing rate and positivity rate for CS-OPD during this period were found to be 34.02% and 7.94%, respectively.

Conclusion:

The clinical, demographic and epidemiological characteristics of patients visiting CS-OPD varied across the study period depending upon the containment and testing strategy. The CS-OPD played a crucial role in preventing nosocomial infection and maintaining non-COVID care at the tertiary care hospital.

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  1. Version published to 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2339_20
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.01.20224105: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIACUC: The institutional ethical committee of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar approved this study (Reference number: T/IM-NF/CM&FM/20/72).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The study used standard case definitions and categories for sample collection as advised by the MOHFW and ICMR. (8)(9) (Figure-3) All the extracted quantitative data were administered in Microsoft excel along with the relevant variables mentioned.
    Microsoft excel
    suggested: (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137)
    Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 23.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    (20) Strengths and limitations: This is the one of the few studies from India which has been undertaken to understand the patient profile and functioning of a COVID-19 screening OPD in a tertiary healthcare setting. We have collected and analysed the data from all the patients who visited the screening OPD during the study period. Our study has been able to demonstrate the variation in patient profile associated with introduction of containment strategy to control COVID-19 pandemic. However, the periodic changes in testing strategy and categorisation of suspected cases for sample collection by ICMR had influenced the testing and positivity rate in our study.

    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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.01.20224105 on medRxiv