Experiencia de un hospital de media estancia en época Covid-19 con protocolos de visitas

• Published in: Revista española de salud pública 2021 (95)
• Main Authors: López Moraleda, Paloma, Sandino Gómez, Rosa, Bautista Balbás, Luis Alfredo, Rosado Palacios, Mercedes, Cordero Castrejón, Violeta, Velasco Guijarro, Olga, Gil Conesa, Mario, Pérez Parras, Beatriz, Rodríguez Caravaca, Gil, Gil Rosado, Raquel, Palacios Agrela, Fernando
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Subjects: 19 prevention; Administración Hospitalaria (D006739); CoV; COVID; Disease Transmission; Healthcare Humanization (DDCS050250); Hospital de Media Estancia; Hospital Management (D006739); Hospital visits; Humanización de la Atención (DDCS050250); Infectious; Intervenciones no farmacéuticas; Long Term Care Facilities; Mid; Non pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs); Prevención de COVID; Recursos de tratamiento a largo plazo; SARS; term Care Hospital; Transmisión de enfermedades infecciosas; Visitas hospitalarias
• ISSN: 1135-5727

Background: The Hospital Virgen de la Poveda, (Villa del Prado, Spain), assists patients in need of Continuous medical care, Rehabilitation or Palliative care; these patients have many risk-factors of COVID-19 morbility and mortality. With both healthcare humanization and contagion-prevention purposes, in July 2020 two patient visit protocols were implemented. The objective of this study is to describe these measures qualitatively and quantitatively. Methods: A context is provided regarding COVID-19 measures in this institution. The content and follow-up indicators of visit protocols (number of visits, of outbreaks, inpatients, etc.) and of their context were provided. The empirical outbreak probabilities were calculated, and hypothesis contrast was performed against no-visits (0%) and no visit-control (7-day cumulative incidence/habitant). Results: Two protocols were created. Accompanying was applied to Palliative Care cases (no appointments required, no time limits), and a short visits protocol was applied to the other patients (appointments for 1 weekly visit for 1-2 persons were given and visits last up to 45 minutes). In both protocols, visitors with symptoms or fever or particularly susceptible were forbidden entrance. Between July and April 2021, 4,759 short-visit appointments were given and 7,544 total visits took place (short visits, accompanying, exceptions). An outbreak was possibly attributed to short visits (probability= 0.021% [CI95%: 0.0005-0.1171%]) and two outbreaks were possibly attributed to visits globally (probability=0.0265% [IC95%: 0.0032-0.0958%]). Conclusions: Elaborating adapted, applicable and prospectively-evaluated protocols with prevention measures at multiple levels might succeed in minimizing the risk of adverse events (in this case, COVID-19 outbreaks). Fundamentos: El Hospital Virgen de la Poveda atiende a pacientes con necesidades de Cuidados Continuos, Rehabilitación o Cuidados Paliativos, que presentan factores de riesgo de morbilidad y mortalidad por COVID-19. Para humanizar la asistencia sanitaria, se implementaron en julio de 2020 protocolos de visitas que minimizasen el riesgo de contagio. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar una descripción cualitativa y cuantitativa de tales medidas. Métodos: Se contextualizó el problema de las medidas ante el COVID-19 de esta institución. Se recogió el contenido e indicadores de seguimiento de los protocolos de visitas (número de visitas, de brotes, ocupación, etc.) y de cont