Impact of heat on mental health emergency visits: a time series study from all public emergency centres, in Curitiba, Brazil.

OBJECTIVES: Quantify the risk of mental health (MH)-related emergency department visits (EDVs) due to heat, in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. DESIGN: Daily time series analysis, using quasi-Poisson combined with distributed lag non-linear model on EDV for MH disorders, from 2017 to 2021. SETTING: All nine emergency centres from the public health system, in Curitiba. PARTICIPANTS: 101 452 EDVs for MH disorders and suicide attempts over 5 years, from patients residing inside the territory of Curitiba. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Relative risk of EDV (RREDV) due to extreme mean temperature (24.5°C, 99th percentile) relative to the median (18.02°C), controlling for long-term trends, air pollution and humidity, and measuring effects delayed up to 10 days. RESULTS: Extreme heat was associated with higher single-lag EDV risk of RREDV 1.03(95% CI 1.01 to 1.05-single-lag 2), and cumulatively of RREDV 1.15 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.26-lag-cumulative 0-6). Strong risk was observed for patients with suicide attempts (RREDV 1.85, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.16) and neurotic disorders (RREDV 1.18, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.31). As to demographic subgroups, females (RREDV 1.20, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.34) and patients aged 18-64 (RREDV 1.18, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.30) were significantly endangered. Extreme heat resulted in lower risks of EDV for patients with organic disorders (RREDV 0.60, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.89), personality disorders (RREDV 0.48, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.91) and MH in general in the elderly ≥65 (RREDV 0.77, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.98). We found no significant RREDV among males and patients aged 0-17. CONCLUSION: The risk of MH-related EDV due to heat is elevated for the entire study population, but very differentiated by subgroups. This opens avenue for adaptation policies in healthcare: such as monitoring populations at risk and establishing an early warning systems to prevent exacerbation of MH episodes and to reduce suicide attempts. Further studies are welcome, why the reported risk differences occur and what, if any, role healthcare seeking barriers might play.

Dynamic accessibility by car to tertiary care emergency services in Cali, Colombia, in 2020: cross-sectional equity analyses using travel time big data from a Google API.

OBJECTIVES: To test a new approach to characterise accessibility to tertiary care emergency health services in urban Cali and assess the links between accessibility and sociodemographic factors relevant to health equity. DESIGN: The impact of traffic congestion on accessibility to tertiary care emergency departments was studied with an equity perspective, using a web-based digital platform that integrated publicly available digital data, including sociodemographic characteristics of the population and places of residence with travel times. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Cali, Colombia (population 2.258 million in 2020) using geographic and sociodemographic data. The study used predicted travel times downloaded for a week in July 2020 and a week in November 2020. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: The share of the population within a 15 min journey by car from the place of residence to the tertiary care emergency department with the shortest journey (ie, 15 min accessibility rate (15mAR)) at peak-traffic congestion hours. Sociodemographic characteristics were disaggregated for equity analyses. A time-series bivariate analysis explored accessibility rates versus housing stratification. RESULTS: Traffic congestion sharply reduces accessibility to tertiary emergency care (eg, 15mAR was 36.8% during peak-traffic hours vs 84.4% during free-flow hours for the week of 6-12 July 2020). Traffic congestion sharply reduces accessibility to tertiary emergency care. The greatest impact fell on specific ethnic groups, people with less educational attainment and those living in low-income households or on the periphery of Cali (15mAR: 8.1% peak traffic vs 51% free-flow traffic). These populations face longer average travel times to health services than the average population. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that health services and land use planning should prioritise travel times over travel distance and integrate them into urban planning. Existing technology and data can reveal inequities by integrating sociodemographic data with accurate travel times to health services estimates, providing the basis for valuable indicators.

Evolution of military evacuation activity in French Guiana over 10 years: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Three permanent military operations are established in French Guiana. The Cayenne medical unit is a French military search and rescue unit and provides MEDEVAC and CASEVAC for ill and injured soldiers. The main objective of this study was to describe the temporal trends of its evacuation missions over 10 years. The secondary purpose was to document the means used for these missions. METHODS: This retrospective observational study included patients who were evacuated for a medical reason or an injury during military operations in French Guiana. We collected the data from the computerised registers the medical department had stored. RESULTS: From 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2019, 1070 patients were included, representing a median annual incidence of 115 (IQR 91-122) evacuations. Of these, 602 (59%) were evacuated by helicopter, 214 (21%) by airplane, 182 (18%) by ambulance and 19 (2%) by pirogue.Reasons for evacuation were diseases in 664 (62%) patients, non-battle injuries in 389 (36%) patients and battle injuries in 17 (2%) patients. Finally, 286 (29%) evacuations were MEDEVAC and 712 (71%) were CASEVAC.Over the years, the increasing number of evacuations reached a maximum of 183 in 2018. Helicopter evacuations, once the primary mode of evacuation, have declined proportionately in favour of other means of evacuation. CONCLUSION: Evacuation missions by the Cayenne medical unit increased over the 10-year study period, while helicopter use decreased. This evolution is a response to the constraints of adapting military operations to fight against illegal gold mining in the Amazonian Forest. Improvement of the means and procedures allows provision of the best care to patients while ensuring the ongoing conduct of military operations.

Qualitative exploration of patient flow in a Caribbean emergency department.

OBJECTIVES: Emergency departments (EDs) are complex adaptive systems and improving patient flow requires understanding how ED processes work. This study aimed to explore the patient flow process in an ED in Trinidad and Tobago, identifying organisational factors influencing patient flow. METHODS: Multiple qualitative methods, including non-participant observations, observational process mapping and informal conversational interviews were used to explore patient flow. The process maps were generated from the observational process mapping. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. SETTING: The study was conducted at a major tertiary level ED in Trinidad and Tobago. PARTICIPANTS: Patient and staff journeys in the ED were directly observed. RESULTS: Six broad categories were identified: (1) ED organisational work processes, (2) ED design and layout, (3) material resources, (4) nursing staff levels, roles, skill mix and use, (5) non-clinical ED staff and (6) external clinical and non-clinical departments. Within each category there were individual factors that appeared to either facilitate or hinder patient flow. Organisational processes such as streaming, front loading of investigations and the transfer process were pre-existing strategies in the ED while staff actions to compensate for limitations with flow were more intuitive. A conceptual framework of factors influencing ED patient flow is also presented. CONCLUSION: The knowledge gained may be used to strengthen the emergency care system in the local context. However, the study findings should be validated in other settings.

Risk of invasive candidiasis with prolonged duration of ICU stay: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the duration of intensive care unit (ICU) stay prior to onset of invasive candidiasis (IC)/candidaemia. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched through June 2019 to identify relevant studies. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Adult patients who had been admitted to the ICU and developed an IC infection. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: The following data were extracted from each article: length of hospital stay, length of ICU stay, duration of ICU admission prior to candidaemia onset, percentage of patients who received antibiotics and duration of their antibiotic therapy prior to candidaemia onset, and overall mortality. In addition to the traditional meta-analyses, meta-regression was performed to explore possible mediators which might have contributed to the heterogeneity. RESULTS: The mean age of patients ranged from 28 to 76 years across selected studies. The pooled mean duration of ICU admission before onset of candidaemia was 12.9 days (95% CI 11.7 to 14.2). The pooled mean duration of hospital stay was 36.3±5.3 days (95% CI 25.8 to 46.7), and the pooled mean mortality rate was 49.3%±2.2% (95% CI 45.0% to 53.5%). There was no significant difference in duration of hospital stay (p=0.528) or overall mortality (p=0.111), but a significant difference was observed in the mean length of ICU stay (2.8 days, p<0.001), between patients with and without Candida albicans. Meta-regression analysis found that South American patients had longer duration of ICU admission prior to candidaemia onset than patients elsewhere, while those in Asia had the shortest duration. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with IC are associated with longer ICU stay, with the shortest duration of ICU admission prior to the candidaemia onset in Asia. This shows a more proactive strategy in the diagnosis of IC should be considered in caring for ICU patients.