1. Acute medical units during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-national exploratory study of impact and responses
- Author
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John Tshon Yit Soong, Dale Fisher, Audrey Li Ann Wong, Milka Marinova, Imogen O'Connor, and Derek Bell
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Process (engineering) ,processes ,Exploratory research ,Context (language use) ,Medicine, General & Internal ,Nursing ,General & Internal Medicine ,Acute care ,Health care ,Pandemic ,medicine ,Humans ,Operational planning ,Pandemics ,General Clinical Medicine ,Original Research ,Retrospective Studies ,Science & Technology ,response ,AMU ,SARS-CoV-2 ,business.industry ,COVID-19 ,1103 Clinical Sciences ,General Medicine ,CARE ,structures ,VENTILATION ,Sustainability ,  ,business ,Life Sciences & Biomedicine ,Delivery of Health Care - Abstract
Background The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest ever challenges for healthcare. In the UK and beyond, acute medical units (AMUs) are the first point of assessment and care for the majority of medical inpatients. By their design and systems, they inevitably played an important role in the COVID-19 response but to date little has been published on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected how AMUs have reorganised their resources, processes and structure. Methods This retrospective study in August 2020 of 10 AMUs across Europe and Australasia used a standardised questionnaire to investigate existing practice and structure of AMUs, the national context of local hospital experience, changes to practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and views regarding future practice. Results Changes to AMU structure, process and organisation are described in two contexts: preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19 and adding value to the patient9s acute care journey in the local context. We describe novel practices that have arisen and highlight areas of concern. Conclusions The AMUs were able to adapt to meet the demands of acute care delivery during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operational planning and prioritisation of resources must be optimised to ensure sustainability of these services for future waves.
- Published
- 2021