Smart Check - COVID-19 triage system: Evaluation of the impact on the screening time and identification of clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a public health service

INTRODUCTION

Most patients with COVID-19 have mild or moderate manifestations; however, there is a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and even more severe repercussions that require high diagnostic suspicion. Vital sign acquisition and monitoring are crucial for detecting and responding to patients with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

Thus, we conducted this study to demonstrate the impact of using a tool called Smart Check on the triage time of patients with suspected COVID-19 and to identify the main initial clinical manifestations in these patients.

METHODOLOGY

We assessed triage times before and after the use of Smart Check in 11 466 patients at Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 1 June to 31 July 2020. In this group, we identified 220 patients for the identification of COVID-19 clinical manifestations in a case-control analysis.

RESULTS

Smart Check was able to decrease the triage time by 33 seconds on average (P < .001), with 75% of the exams being performed within 5 minutes, whereas with the usual protocol these steps were performed within 6 minutes. A range of clinical presentations made up the COVID-19 initial manifestations. Those with the highest frequency were dry cough (46.4%), fever (41.3%), dyspnoea (35.8%), and headache (31.8%). Loss of appetite was the manifestation that had a statistically significant association with the SARS-CoV-2 presence (univariate analysis). When analysed together, loss of appetite associated with dyspnoea and/or ageusia and/or fever was related to the diagnosis of COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS

Smart Check, a simple clinical evaluation tool, along with the targeted use of rapid PCR testing, can optimise triage time for patients with and without COVID-19. In triage centres, a number of initial signs and symptoms should be cause for SARS-CoV-2 infection suspicion, in particular the association of respiratory, neurological, and gastrointestinal manifestations.

Discordance between cytology and biopsy histology of the cervix: what to consider and what to do

OBJECTIVE

Since cytology is the examination utilized for the screening of cervical cancer, it is important to determine its correlation with histologic examination, the gold standard in the diagnosis of cervical disease.

STUDY DESIGN

A retrospective evaluation was made of 431 patients who presented with colposcopic indication for cervical biopsy between 2003 and 2007.

RESULTS

In 90.8% (289/318) of the patients, cytology showing cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) was confirmed as CIN in the histology of the cervix, while 62.8% (71/113) of patients with normal cytology had a confirmation of a normal histology (κ = 0.558).

CONCLUSION

Cytology demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 87.3 and 71.0%, respectively. The agreement between cervical cytology and histology, considering the presence of CIN, was moderate. Correlations between accuracy and errors of cytology are discussed with therapeutic emphasis.

Avaliação de intervenções de Gestão da Clínica na qualificação do cuidado e na oferta de leitos em um hospital público de grande porte

*** Evaluation of clinical governance interventions on qualification of care and supply of beds in a large public hospital ***AIMS: To describe the results achieved in hospital performance indicators and supply of beds, with the strategy of incorporating clinical management into the care process of the backup unit of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital.METHODS: The study was carried out in the backup unit of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The backup unit is an inpatient hospital with beds intended for hospital emergency patients characterized by short stay (less than 10 days of hospitalization) and in the study period it had 27 beds. As clinic management tools we implemented multidisciplinary reference teams and multidisciplinary rounds, established a Kanban system to monitor mean length of stay, and introduced the unique therapeutic project at the hospital entrance (emergency room) and management of beds by the Internal Regulation Center. We monitored the hospital indicators number of hospitalizations, mean length of stay, resolvability, mortality rate and turnover rate over a period of 12 months (2016, after implementation of the strategy) and made comparisons with the same period of the previous year. RESULTS: After the introduction of Clinic Management, there was an increase in the number of hospitalizations from 1395 to 1537/year. There were 1240 discharges to home (an average of 104 a month), showing an increase of 101.9% in relation to the previous period. There was also a decrease in the number of internal transfers (between the back unit and other sectors of the hospital), an increase in the turnover rate from 51.6 to 56.9, decrease in the mean stay time of 7.2 days to 6.6 days and a significant decrease in the mortality rate from 3.5 to 0.7 (p <0.05).CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of clinical management in the context of care work in the hospital's backup bed unit fostered improvements in care processes, as well as ensuring greater supply of beds to users.

Cohort study protocol of the Brazilian collaborative research network on COVID-19: strengthening WHO global data

INTRODUCTION

With the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals in low-income countries were faced with a triple challenge. First, a large number of patients required hospitalisation because of the infection's more severe symptoms. Second, there was a lack of systematic and broad testing policies for early identification of cases. Third, there were weaknesses in the integration of information systems, which led to the need to search for available information from the hospital information systems. Accordingly, it is also important to state that relevant aspects of COVID-19's natural history had not yet been fully clarified. The aim of this research protocol is to present the strategies of a Brazilian network of hospitals to perform systematised data collection on COVID-19 through the WHO platform.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

This is a multicentre project among Brazilian hospitals to provide data on COVID-19 through the WHO global platform, which integrates patient care information from different countries. From October 2020 to March 2021, a committee worked on defining a flowchart for this platform, specifying the variables of interest, data extraction standardisation and analysis.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) of the Research Coordinating Center of Brazil (CEP of the Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceicao), on 29 January 2021, under approval No. 4.515.519 and by the National Research Ethics Commission (CONEP), on 5 February 2021, under approval No. 4.526.456. The project results will be explained in WHO reports and published in international peer-reviewed journals, and summaries will be provided to the funders of the study.