Personal Protective Equipment Efficiency in Healthcare Emergencies: A Single-Center Experience.

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatically shifted the healthcare landscape since 2020. Measures against it includes universal masking in the healthcare areas and the community, viral testing before aerosolizing procedures, and ambulatory elective surgical procedures. Some hospitals have had mandated viral testing policies even before admission to the hospital. Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been cautiously modifying all pertinent practices to avoid the transmission of the virus. Personal protective equipment (PPE), including gowns, gloves, eye protection, and properly fitted N95 respirator or powered air-purifying respirators (PAPR) while treating the suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients were made mandatory. Similarly, we changed our aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) protocols based on available limited data. We amended our approach to in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (basic life support (BLS)/advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS)), given the risk of aerosol generation and transmission during the process. This article shares our experience and outcomes of PPE use in healthcare emergencies at our tertiary care academic center.