Critical preparedness and operational response actions directed for the acute and post-acute COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: the experience of a nationwide outpatient healthcare group

While the new Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rapidly spread across the world, South America was reached later in relation to Asia, Europe and the United States of America (USA). Brazil concentrates now the largest number of cases in the continent and, as the disease speedily progressed throughout the country, prompt and challenging operational strategies had to be taken by institutions caring for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients in order to assure optimal workflows, triage, and management. Although hospitals in the USA, Europe and Asia have shared their experience on this subject, little has been discussed about such strategies in South America or by the perspective of outpatient centers, which are paramount in the radiology field. This article shares the guidelines adopted early in the pandemic by a nationwide outpatient healthcare center composed by a network of more than 200 patient service centers and nearly 2,000 radiologists in Brazil, discussing operational and patient management strategies, staff protection, changes adopted in the fellowship program, and the effectiveness of such measures.     

The mediating role of patient satisfaction and perceived quality of healthcare in the emergency department

The purpose of this research was to identify whether a certain set of drivers of satisfaction/perceived quality of healthcare (PQHC) could indirectly affect patients’ confidence/trust in the emergency department (ED).Patients were seen at an ED in the public hospital in Lisbon, Portugal between January and December 2016. Data were collected between May and November 2017, using a questionnaire, by mail or e-mail. The total sample size comprised 382 patients. The data analysis included structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model with specific drivers of satisfaction/PQHC (privacy; accessibility and availability; doctors; meeting expectations; waiting time for triage [perception]; waiting time to be called back by the doctor following examinations and/or tests [perception]; information about possible delays in receiving treatment/waiting times) and with the main outcome (confidence/trust in the ED) using path analysis.The analysis of the coefficients revealed that all the mediated paths are statistically significant (P ≤ .05). Although, altogether, the direct paths did not prove statistically significant (P > .05), the overall satisfaction with doctors (P ≤ .01) and meeting expectations (P = .01) can still directly explain the confidence/trust in the ED without the mediating role of satisfaction and PQHC. Hence, overall satisfaction with doctors and meeting expectations can influence, both directly and indirectly, confidence/trust in the ED. All other variables can only indirectly affect confidence/trust in the ED, either through PQHC or through satisfaction.Even though there are more variables that influence confidence/trust in the ED through PQHC (1)waiting time to be called back by the doctor following examinations and/or tests [perception]; 2) privacy; 3) accessibility and availability; 4) doctors; 5) meeting expectations than through satisfaction (1)waiting time for triage [perception]; 2) information about possible delays in receiving treatment/waiting times; 3) doctors; 4) meeting expectations), we observe the strongest contribution in the mediation model through satisfaction, which reveals its dominant role over PQHC.     

Mild to moderate COVID-19 illness in adult outpatients: Characteristics,symptoms, and outcomes in the first 4 weeks of illness

Most patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have mild to moderate illness not requiring hospitalization. However, no study has detailed the evolution of symptoms in the first month of illness.At our institution, we conducted remote (telephone and video) visits for all adult outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19 within 24 h of a positive nasopharyngeal polymerase chain test for SARS-CoV-2. We repeated regular video visits at 7, 14, and 28 days after the positive test, retrospectively reviewed the prospective data collected in the remote visits, and constructed a week by week profile of clinical illness, through week 4 of illness.We reviewed the courses of 458 symptomatic patients diagnosed between March 12, 2020, and June 22, 2020, and characterized their weekly courses. Common initial symptoms included fever, headache, cough, and chest pain, which frequently persisted through week 3 or longer. Upper respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms were much shorter lived, present primarily in week 1. Anosmia/ageusia peaked in weeks 2 to 3. Emergency department visits were frequent, with 128 visits in the 423 patients who were not hospitalized and 48 visits among the 35 outpatients (7.6%) who were eventually hospitalized (2 subsequently died). By the fourth week, 28.9% said their illness had completely resolved. After the 4-week follow up, 20 (4.7%) of the 423 nonhospitalized patients had further medical evaluation and management for subacute or chronic COVID-19 symptoms.Mild to moderate outpatient COVID-19 is a prolonged illness, with evolving symptoms commonly lasting into the fourth week of illness.     

晚期早产母源性因素的病例对照研究

目的探讨晚期早产发生的母源性影响因素。方法选取2012年1月至2013年12月住院分娩的970例晚期早产产妇为研究对象,并以同期早期早产(207例)和全部足月产(11985例)产妇为对照,比较分析晚期早产的母源性影响因素。结果年龄<20岁、外来流动人口、小学及以下文化程度、无业人员、双胎妊娠、无定期产前检查、胎膜早破、前置胎盘、胎盘早剥、妊娠合并肝内胆汁淤积与晚期早产和早期早产均有关(P<0.01);流产次数≥3次、胚胎移植术妊娠、妊娠合并高血压与晚期早产有关(P<0.05、0.01);妊娠合并贫血与早期早产有关(P<0.01)。结论除早产共有的影响因素外,流产次数≥3次、胚胎移植术妊娠、妊娠合并高血压是晚期早产独有的母源性因素,应采取针对性的措施减少和预防晚期早产的发生。     

Improving Radiology Report Quality by Rapidly Notifying Radiologist of Report Errors

Radiology report errors occur for many reasons including the use of pre-filled report templates, wrong-word substitution, nonsensical phrases, and missing words. Reports may also contain clinical errors that are not specific to the speech recognition including wrong laterality and gender-specific discrepancies. Our goal was to create a custom algorithm to detect potential gender and laterality mismatch errors and to notify the interpreting radiologists for rapid correction. A JavaScript algorithm was devised to flag gender and laterality mismatch errors by searching the text of the report for keywords and comparing them to parameters within the study’s HL7 metadata (i.e., procedure type, patient sex). The error detection algorithm was retrospectively applied to 82,353 reports 4 months prior to its development and then prospectively to 309,304 reports 15 months after implementation. Flagged reports were reviewed individually by two radiologists for a true gender or laterality error and to determine if the errors were ultimately corrected. There was significant improvement in the number of flagged reports (pre, 198/82,353 [0.24 %]; post, 628/309,304 [0.20 %]; P = 0.04) and reports containing confirmed gender or laterality errors (pre, 116/82,353 [0.014 %]; post, 285/309,304 [0.09 %]; P < 0.0001) after implementing our error notification system. The number of flagged reports containing an error that were ultimately corrected improved dramatically after implementing the notification system (pre, 17/116 [15 %]; post, 239/285 [84 %]; P < 0.0001). We developed a successful automated tool for detecting and notifying radiologists of potential gender and laterality errors, allowing for rapid report correction and reducing the overall rate of report errors.     

大学生生命意义与社会支持、心理控制源及主观幸福感

目的:考察大学生生命意义与社会支持、心理控制源和主观幸福感的关系。方法:采用随机抽样方法对湖南和广东的601名大学生进行问卷调查。结果:男生生命意义感显著高于女生(t=2.53,P0.05),不同专业大学生生命意义差别无统计学意义;生命意义与社会支持、心理控制源、主观幸福感呈显著相关(r=0.60~-0.55,P0.01);大学生感知的主观支持、心理控制源和生活满意度显著预测其生命意义的目标维度,主观支持和总体情感指数显著预测生命意义的实现维度。结论:大学生生命意义水平总体情况良好。社会支持、内在控制感及主观幸福感的提高,有助于改善学生的生命意义感。     

父母控制对青少年抑郁的直接和间接效应

目的:探讨父母控制的不同形式(行为控制、心理控制)与青少年抑郁的联系,并检验青少年基本心理需要满足在其中的中介作用。方法:采用父母控制问卷、基本心理需要满足量表以及儿童抑郁调查表(中文版)对703名青少年进行测查。结果:1行为控制对抑郁具有显著的负向预测作用,心理控制对抑郁具有显著的正向预测作用;2行为控制通过促进基本心理需要满足进而减少青少年抑郁,心理控制通过阻碍基本心理需要满足进而增加青少年抑郁。结论:父母控制的不同形式对青少年抑郁具有不同的影响,基本心理需要满足在二者之间起中介作用。