I was going to post this earlier but figured no one would take creed as it's not from a source I can cite to you all and sounds so unreliable . But now I will and you can choose to believe this or not.
The source of this information. One of my oldest and best friends sister, who is a pediatric doctor in Arkansas and she is relaying the information she got from a front line Intensivist (ICU) doctor in Seattle she knows. So no this information is not being provided to me directly by someone I know, so believe me when I say the source is reliable. Some of the main things she said:
*We have 21 patients and 11 deaths since 2/28
*We are seeing patients in their 20's, fit, no comorbidities, critically ill. So it does happen.
*US has been past containment since January
*Currently all of ICU is for critically ill COVIDS, all of floor medsburg for stable COVIDS and EOL care, half of PCU, half of ER.(everything I just wrote was her words, I don't know what some of that stuff means)
If all of ICU is dedicated to COVID cases, that means they're past impacted. Anyone having a heart attack, flu repsonse, sepsis, respiratory distress, etc. is being diverted to another facility, or not treated. Working in healthcare, this is what scares me the most looking around where I work and area hospitals. If they are turning Med/Surg floors into COVID wings- more impact. Those are regular hospital beds. Obviously, you can't mix and match COVID cases with non-infected. EOL care is End of Life- so, they're putting people that are on comfort care, imminently dying in with COVID cases. You cancel any non-emergent surgery cases; you send people home that normally would receive care/monitoring and hope for the best. PCU is probably a Stepdown unit: care between normal and Critical.
*she went on a long spiel about being out a lot of stuff like N95's and are bleaching and reusing PAPRS which is not the manufactures recommendation. (again her words, I don't know what some of that stuff means)
My facility is out of one size of the N95 masks. The ones we have are locked up. Obviously, it's not supposed to be like that. I am planning on the fact that I am probably going to get infected, and probably have a huge amount of OT, before being out of commission. We are going to have to stretch resources and relax standards that apply to normal conditions, and do the best we can with what is available. PAPR masks are like gas masks with hoods- the ones you see in movies, like Outbreak. They are meant to be cleaned and re-used. I don't follow about not being up to manufacturers's specs, but further into the "field expedient/do whatever works best" territory.
*terminal cleans for ER COVID rooms are taking forever. Enviro services are overwhelmed. Bad as patients stuck coughing in waiting room. Wanted to implement a plan to have patients wait in cars but indicated it was not legal their.
Terminal cleaning is the cleaning that takes place to disinfect the room and surfaces after a patient leaves. Obviously, with COVID cases, there isn't even a standard, yet, because it's a novel virus. For example, terminal cleaning after a flu patient takes a long time because you have to be thorough and strip out curtains and stuff, and then run UV lights to disinfect. Having to do that level of cleaning for every single patient would slow things down enormously.
R - sleep with her sister? Sleep with her mom? Hide hand sanitizer? Hide TP?
