Accepted for/Published in: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: Dec 17, 2021
Date Accepted: Apr 26, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jun 15, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Influence of COVID-19 protocols on the efficiency of trauma theatre
ABSTRACT
Background:
Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the health care delivery significantly. Acute trauma presentations decreased, while there was an increase in fracture neck of femur presentations during the COVID-19 lockdown. Numerous literatures highlighted that Trauma theatre efficiency has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to compare the timeline of various events in the patient journey through the trauma theatre and identify the segment where delay has occurred during the pre-COVID and COVID times [infection control protocols were in place].
Methods:
We compared the efficiency of trauma theatre in a busy unit in December 2019 (pre-COVID) to December 2020 (COVID restrictions in place). We collected time logs of different events in the theatre for each patient in Decembers of both the years and compared the data.
Results:
There was no significant difference found in average number of cases operated per session while all the COVID Infection Control protocols were in place. We also observed a statistically significant difference in our theatre start time wherein we had early start time during COVID pandemic. There was no significant difference between the two groups for the time log calculation for transport time, Check in Time, Pre-Procedure Time, Anaesthetic Time and the time between cases. A significant difference was observed in the check Out Time between the two groups.
Conclusions:
In conclusion, we found that our theatre start times were better during the COVID pandemic. However, all the other time logs were comparable between the groups with or without COVID infection protocols.
Citation
