Mohammed Faisal, Mohaddis Momin, Cheruvu Manikandar Srinivas, Morris Richard M, Naim Zahra, Khan Sarfraz, Mushtaq Muhammad Babar, Chandran Prakash
Warrington Hospital, Warrington, United Kingdom.
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Gobowen, United Kingdom.
Interact J Med Res. 2022 Jul 12;11(2):e35805. doi: 10.2196/35805.
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced health care delivery significantly. Numerous studies have highlighted that trauma theater efficiency has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, there is limited information as to exactly which stage of the patient theater journey is causing this decreased efficiency and whether efficiency can be improved. In the trauma theater of Warrington Hospital, United Kingdom, we have attempted to maintain trauma theater efficiency despite the requirement for increased infection control.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of additional COVID-19 infection control protocols on trauma theater efficiency in our center, considering the length of time taken for specific theater events, and to find out whether our interventions were successful in maintaining theater efficiency.
We compared the efficiency of the trauma theater in a busy unit in December 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and December 2020 (with COVID-19 protocols in place). We collected time logs for different theater events for each patient in December of both years and compared the data.
There was no significant difference in the average number of cases performed per session between the COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 time periods (P=.17). Theater start time was significantly earlier during the COVID-19 period (P<.001). There was no significant difference between the two periods in transport time, check-in time, preprocedure time, anesthetic time, and the time between cases (P>.05). A significant difference was observed in the check-out time between the two groups in the two time periods, with checking out taking longer during the COVID-19 period (P<.001).
Our results show that our theater start times were earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overall theater efficiency was maintained despite the additional COVID-19 infection control protocols that were in place. These findings suggest that well-planned infection control protocols do not need to impede trauma theater efficiency in certain settings.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）大流行对医疗服务产生了重大影响。众多研究强调，在COVID-19大流行期间创伤手术室效率有所下降；然而，关于患者手术室流程中究竟哪个阶段导致了效率下降以及效率是否可以提高的信息有限。在英国沃灵顿医院的创伤手术室，尽管需要加强感染控制，我们仍试图维持创伤手术室的效率。
本研究的目的是评估额外的COVID-19感染控制方案对我们中心创伤手术室效率的影响，同时考虑特定手术室事件所需的时间，并确定我们的干预措施是否成功维持了手术室效率。
我们比较了2019年12月（COVID-19之前）和2020年12月（实施COVID-19方案后）一个繁忙科室的创伤手术室效率。我们收集了这两年12月每个患者不同手术室事件的时间记录并比较了数据。
COVID-19期间和COVID-19之前的时间段内，每台手术的平均例数没有显著差异（P = 0.17）。COVID-19期间手术室开始时间显著更早（P < 0.001）。两个时间段在转运时间、登记时间、术前时间、麻醉时间以及病例之间的间隔时间方面没有显著差异（P > 0.05）。两个时间段两组的出院时间存在显著差异，COVID-19期间出院时间更长（P < 0.001）。
我们的结果表明，在COVID-19大流行期间我们的手术室开始时间更早，并尽管实施了额外的COVID-19感染控制方案，但仍维持了整体手术室效率。这些发现表明，精心规划的感染控制方案在某些情况下无需妨碍创伤手术室效率。
