COVID-19 management in nursing homes by outbreak teams (MINUTES) — study description and data characteristics: a qualitative study

• Published in: BMJ open 2021-11, Vol.11 (11), p.e053235-e053235
• Main Authors: van Tol, Lisa S, Smaling, Hanneke J A, Groothuijse, Janneke M, Doornebosch, Arno J, Janus, Sarah I M, Zuidema, Sytse U, Caljouw, Monique A A, Achterberg, Wilco P, de Waal, Margot W M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Codes; Content analysis; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control; Epidemics; Health Policy; Humans; infection control; Infections; Long term health care; Medical research; Meetings; Nursing Homes; Pandemics; Participation; Public health; Qualitative research; Researchers; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Well being
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053235

ObjectivesNursing homes are hit relatively hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dutch long-term care (LTC) organisations installed outbreak teams (OTs) to coordinate COVID-19 infection prevention and control. LTC organisations and relevant national policy organisations expressed the need to share experiences from these OTs that can be applied directly in COVID-19 policy. The aim of the ‘COVID-19 management in nursing homes by outbreak teams’ (MINUTES) study is to describe the challenges, responses and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dutch nursing homes. In this first article, we describe the MINUTES Study and present data characteristics.DesignThis large-scale multicentre study has a qualitative design using manifest content analysis. The participating organisations shared their OT minutes and other meeting documents on a weekly basis. Data from week 16 (April) to week 53 (December) 2020 included the first two waves of COVID-19.SettingNational study with 41 large Dutch LTC organisations.ParticipantsThe LTC organisations represented 563 nursing home locations and almost 43 000 residents.ResultsAt least 36 of the 41 organisations had one or more SARS-CoV-2 infections among their residents. Most OTs were composed of management, medical staff, support services staff, policy advisors and communication specialists. Topics that emerged from the documents were: crisis management, isolation of residents, personal protective equipment and hygiene, staff, residents’ well-being, visitor policies, testing and vaccination.ConclusionsOT meeting minutes are a valuable data source to monitor the impact of and responses to COVID-19 in nursing homes. Depending on the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection and analysis will continue until November 2021. The results are used directly in national and organisational COVID-19 policy.