Patient safety with covid-19 in hospital units: a scoping review.
Fernanda de Macedo Coelho Leite, Eloysa Dos Santos Oliveira, Bruna Vilar Soares da Silva and 3 others
PMID 37820105WHAT IT FOUND
Hospital units mainly reorganised beds, rooms and operating rooms, and isolated or distanced patients and staff for covid-19 care.
Outcomes were mostly positive, but some measures increased coughing or failed to relieve overcrowding.
Key findings
01The most recurrent hospital safety practices were contingency and reorganisation of beds, rooms and operating rooms, and isolation and distancing by patients and professionals.
02Reported outcomes were almost totally positive, including no complications in some procedures, no infection records in some studies, and reduced hospital transmission after ward masking, hand hygiene, distancing and disinfection.
03Some actions did not help or caused harm: an emergency department plan still left the department overcrowded, and nasal decolonisation in cardiac surgery increased coughing and sneezing.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a scoping review, so it maps reported actions rather than testing whether any action caused better patient safety. Only 15 studies were included, and they were heterogeneous in design, country, hospital area and outcome. Most included studies were observational, and two had no evidence level reported. One included study did not report clear results or outcomes. The review covered hospital units only, not primary health care or home care. The authors state that the measures and protocols are still not sufficient to promote patient safety in its entirety.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the mostly positive outcomes as proof that these hospital measures work. This is a scoping review of heterogeneous studies, and some measures increased coughing or failed to relieve overcrowding.