Challenges and solutions for the integrated recovery room planning and scheduling problem during COVID-19 pandemic.

This study presents an efficient solution for the integrated recovery room planning and scheduling problem (IRRPSP). The complexity of the IRRPSP is caused by several sources. The problem combines the assignment of patients to recovery rooms and the scheduling of caregivers over a short-term planning horizon. Moreover, a solution of the IRRPSP should respect a set of hard and soft constraints while solving the main problem such as the maximum capacity of recovery rooms, the maximum daily load of caregivers, the treatment deadlines, etc. Thus, the need for an automated tool to support the decision-makers in handling the planning and scheduling tasks arises. In this paper, we present an exhaustive description of the epidemiological situation within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially in Jeddah Governorate. We will highlight the importance of implementing a formal and systematic approach in dealing with the scheduling of recovery rooms during extreme emergency periods like the COVID-19 era. To do so, we developed a mathematical programming model to present the IRRPSP in a formal way which will help in analyzing the problem and lately use its solution for comparison and evaluation of our proposed approach. Due to the NP-hard nature of the IRRPSP, we propose a hybrid three-level approach. This study uses real data instances received from the Department of Respiratory and Chest Diseases of the King Abdulaziz Hospital. The computational results show that our solution significantly outperforms the results obtained by CPLEX software with more than 1.33% of satisfied patients on B1 benchmark in much lesser computation time (36.27 to 1546.79 s). Moreover, our proposed approach can properly balance the available nurses and the patient perspectives.

Surgical activation protocol COVID-19 (SAP COVID).

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak have major implications in conventional surgical practice. As the number of patients with this diagnosis is rising, the infection risk for the surgical staff will be higher. Few publications have addressed the surgical management of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To assess recommendations for care of patients and surgical team during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (April 2020) were searched the key words "COVID-19", "PROTOCOL" and "SURGERY". Relevant recommendations, guidelines and cases series were checked for the most accurate information for apply to our center. RESULTS: We found 379 papers that included the key words. A total of 25 papers were included in the manuscript based in the pertinence of the recommendations. Three major topics were selected: perioperative, intraoperative and postoperative. CONCLUSION: As an attempt to regulate the surgical team approach, we present recommendations to preserve patients and surgical staff safety with high quality standards of care through reproducible strategies applicable in most hospital centers.

ANTECEDENTES: La pandemia de COVID-19 ha tenido un gran impacto en la práctica quirúrgica convencional. Conforme el número de pacientes diagnosticados con esta enfermedad vaya en aumento, el riesgo de contagio para el equipo quirúrgico será mayor. Pocas publicaciones han abordado el manejo del paciente diagnosticado con COVID-19 dentro del quirófano. OBJETIVO: Evaluar las recomendaciones para el cuidado de pacientes y del equipo quirúrgico durante la pandemia de COVID-19. MÉTODO: La búsqueda bibliográfica principal utilizó las bases de datos MEDLINE, Embase y Cochrane, utilizando las palabras clave "COVID-19", "PROTOCOL" y "SURGERY". Se verificaron recomendaciones, guías y series de casos relevantes para obtener la información más precisa y aplicable. RESULTADOS: Se hizo la revisión de 379 artículos que contenían las palabras clave. Se incluyeron 25 artículos basándose en la pertinencia de las recomendaciones. Los tres temas principales seleccionados fueron las fases preoperatoria, transoperatoria y posoperatoria. CONCLUSIÓN: En un esfuerzo por tratar de normar el manejo quirúrgico, presentamos recomendaciones para preservar la seguridad del paciente y del equipo quirúrgico con estándares de alta calidad, mediante estrategias reproducibles en la mayoría de los centros hospitalarios.

Adult cardiac surgery during COVID-19 lockdown: Impact on activity and outcomes in a high-volume centre.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak had a direct impact on adult cardiac surgery activity, which systematically necessitates a postoperative stay in intensive care. AIM: To study the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on cardiac surgery activity and outcomes, by making a comparison with the corresponding period in 2019. METHODS: This prospective observational cohort study compared adult cardiac surgery activity in our high-volume referral university hospital from 9 March to 10 May 2020 versus 9 March to 10 May 2019. Data were collected in our local certified database and a national database sponsored by the French society of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. The primary study endpoints were operative mortality and postoperative complications. RESULTS: With 105 interventions in 2020, our activity dropped by 57% compared with the same period in 2019. Patients were at higher risk, with a significantly higher EuroSCORE II score (3.8±4.5% vs. 2.0±1.8%; P<0.001) and higher rates of active endocarditis (7.6% vs. 2.9%; P=0.047) and recent myocardial infarction (9.5% vs. 0%; P<0.001). The weight and priority of the interventions were significantly different in 2020 (P=0.019 and P<0.001, respectively). The rate of acute aortic syndromes was also significantly higher in 2020 (P<0.001). Operative mortality was higher during the lockdown period (5.7% vs. 1.7%; P=0.038). The postoperative course was more complicated in 2020, with more postoperative bleeding (P=0.003), mechanical circulatory support (P=0.032) and prolonged mechanical ventilation (P=0.005). Only two patients (1.8%) developed a positive status for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Adult cardiac surgery was heavily affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. A further modulation plan is necessary to improve outcomes and reduce postponed operations to decrease operative mortality and morbidity.

[Contribution of a hospital pharmacy team to critical care of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2]. / Contribution d'une équipe de pharmacie hospitalière à la prise en charge en réanimation des patients infectés par le SARS-CoV-2.

With regard to the hospital drug supply chain, the safest system is the individual automated drug dispensing one provided by the pharmacy. For several years we have been trying to convince hospital decision-makers to set it up. In the meantime, to mitigate the risks of medication errors incurred by patients and caregivers, we have set up several work teams within the care units. These teams, made up of one pharmacist and one or two hospital pharmacy technicians, who notably manage the medicine cabinets in care units. The close collaboration with doctors and nurses developed over the years was a determining factor when it became necessary to provide the newly created additional intensive care units with drugs and medical devices (MDs) in order to cope with the crisis triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Daily monitoring of the drugs consumed by each patient, particularly neuromuscular blocking agents and MDs was a key element in managing stocks and anticipating changes of drugs, packaging and/or devices references. These facts give weight to the Claris report published in France which recognizes that the interactions of pharmacy technicians and pharmacists in the care units have positive effects in terms of quality and safety of patient care. They highlight the dangers to which patients and caregivers are exposed on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays when the pharmacy is closed. They legitimize the question of extending the opening of the pharmacy with a full team 365 days a year.

[Safe surgery and COVID-19: A narrative review]. / Cirugía segura y COVID-19: una revisión narrativa.

BACKGROUND: The interruption of surgical care in Spain caused by the pandemic must end. Recovery from this activity must be carried out on an elective basis and in conjunction with possible cases of COVID-19. The objective of this review was to incorporate good practice criteria related to COVID-19 into the context of safe surgery, which would make it possible to develop a proposed surgical safety checklist adapted to patients with this disease. METHODS: Narrative literature review, following the PRISMA protocol, in the Medline and Cochrane directories, using the MeSH terms (coronavirus, infections, safety, surgical procedures, operative, checklist) and the Boolean operator AND. In addition, recommendations from scientific bodies and societies were reviewed (grey literature). RESULTS: Thirty-three final studies were included with recommendations for safe surgery and surgical safety checklist adapted for COVID-19, the most frequent being aspects related to treatment (41.3%) and prevention and control measures (27.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The existence of a broad consensus on good practices recommended for COVID surgical patients makes it possible to make a proposal for surgical safety checklist to these patients.

Adult cardiac surgery and the COVID-19 pandemic: Aggressive infection mitigation strategies are necessary in the operating room and surgical recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates aggressive infection mitigation strategies to reduce the risk to patients and healthcare providers. This document is intended to provide a framework for the adult cardiac surgeon to consider in this rapidly changing environment. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative detailed protective measures are outlined. These are guidance recommendations during a pandemic surge to be used for all patients while local COVID-19 disease burden remains elevated.