An intra-action review conducted by the CDC Foundation during COVID-19 to evaluate emergency response procedures.

OBJECTIVES: During times of emergency response, the CDC Foundation leverages partnerships and relationships to better understand the situation and respond rapidly to save lives. As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold, an opportunity became clear to improve our work in emergency response through documentation of lessons learned and incorporating them into best practices. STUDY DESIGN: This was a mixed methods study. METHODS: The CDC Foundation Response, Crisis and Preparedness Unit conducted an internal evaluation via an intra-action review to evaluate and rapidly improve emergency response activities to provide effective and efficient response-related program management. RESULTS: The processes developed during the COVID-19 response to conduct timely and actionable reviews of the CDC Foundation's operations led to the identification of gaps in the work and management processes and to creation of subsequent actions to address these issues. Such solutions include surge hiring, establishing standard operating procedures for processes not yet documented, and creating tools and templates to streamline emergency response operations. CONCLUSIONS: The creation of manuals and handbooks, intra-action reviews, and impact sharing for emergency response projects led to actionable items meant to improve processes and procedures and the ability of the Response, Crisis and Preparedness Unit to quickly mobilize resources directed toward saving lives. These products are now open-source resources that can be used by other organizations to improve their own emergency response management systems.

The Ments Criteria - Can We Apply It in Dialysis Access Surgery?

Introduction: Dialysis access surgery, in the UK, is almost always performed in NHS healthboard-run hospitals. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which access to elective operating theatres became limited, arrangements were made in our vascular access service, to perform some dialysis access surgery in a local private hospital. Patients were selected such that those deemed suitable as day-case and unlikely to require in-patient stay were chosen. A scoring system, 'Medically Necessary Time-Sensitive' (MeNTS) criteria, was proposed recently to assist in such decision-making processes by considering procedural, disease, and patient factors (Prachand et al, J Am Coll Surg.2020). The cumulative MeNTS score ranges from 21 to 105, with a score >65 signifying a 'too high risk to be justified' procedure. The aim of this study was to use MeNTS scores retrospectively to determine whether correct decisions were made in performing dialysis-access operations in the usual NHS university healthboard (UHB) setting vs local private hospital (Spire). Method(s): MeNTS scores were calculated for all patients who underwent dialysis access surgery at both sites between March 2020 - March 2021. Outcomes assessed included patient survival and COVID-19 infection Results: 213 Patients underwent dialysis access surgery at UHB and 76 at Spire. Mean cumulative MeNTS scores were 40.03(+/-0.30) and 39.97(+/-0.46) for the UHB and Spire groups, respectively (P=.922). COVID-19 infection occurred in four patients at UHB, and none in Spire (P=.576). Successful dialysis access was achieved in 76.06% and 69.74% in UHB and Spire patients, respectively (P=.287). At 30 days, one UHB patient had died whilst all Spire patients were alive (P>.999). Discussion and conclusion: Dialysis access surgery can take place safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, with necessary precautions. A modified version of the MeNTS score to make it more renal-specific would allow maximum benefit to be achieved from it in this field.

Mental well-being promotion by Australian community pharmacists: what's happening and what needs to be done?

Objectives This study aimed to explore the range of activities provided by community pharmacists for promoting mental well-being in Australia. Methods An online survey was developed and piloted by 2 community pharmacists, 1 representative from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and 11 pharmacy students for content and face validity. Community pharmacists were recruited via direct emails to pharmacy groups and social media between November 2019 and January 2020. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared analyses were conducted. Key findings Data were analysed from 85 pharmacists (of 115 total pharmacy staff respondents). Although 40% reported working in a pharmacy that promoted mental well-being, most (88.2%) were not involved in such activities. However, most respondents (88.0%) identified community pharmacy as a suitable setting to promote mental well-being. Barriers to mental well-being promotion included busy pharmacy environment with competing priorities, a lack of staff training and confidence in discussing mental well-being and stigma associated with mental illness. Conclusions Community pharmacy presents a suitable setting to promote mental well-being. However, pharmacists may not be utilizing their full range of skills and knowledge in promoting a national health priority. This study identified opportunities for increased pharmacist-led promotion of mental well-being, particularly given the emerging mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted the growing urgency for mental health-friendly health workers across the sector including the community pharmacy workforce to engage consumers about their mental well-being.

COVID-19 and strategic communication with parents and guardians of college students

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused colleges and universities in the United States to transition from face-to-face to remote learning. Academic leaders need to understand how to better serve both their customers (parents) and their consumers (students) after this disruption in the academic business model. Strategic communication will be critical for rebuilding this industry sector. Taking a snapshot of communication patterns in the midst of change provides a baseline for future decision-making. This study builds on literature regarding emerging adulthood, family communication patterns, and crisis communication to examine two areas: (a) communication between parents/guardians and their students, and (b) communication between the institution and parents/guardians. In a study of 525 parents/family members, communication patterns reflect differences in stages of progression through the developmental stage of emerging adulthood. Digital communication tools dominated family communication and video calling increased. Parents/guardians of students who plan to return to their former institution were most satisfied with crisis communication, communication across the student life cycle, and measures of institutional quality. Parents/guardians of those who graduated were least satisfied on most measures. The potential for future philanthropy was relatively high across the sample. Recommendations are provided for applying insights to other strategic communication contexts. © 2020 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.