{"id":12233,"date":"2020-04-18T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/?p=12233"},"modified":"2020-05-21T11:12:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T15:12:31","slug":"some-childrens-hospitals-are-treating-adult-covid-19-patients-to-meet-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/some-childrens-hospitals-are-treating-adult-covid-19-patients-to-meet-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Some children’s hospitals are treating adult COVID-19 patients to meet demand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two adult patients with COVID-19 were treated in a Montreal pediatric intensive care unit this week \u2014 a sign of how hospitals are stretching to accommodate the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Hospitals in some areas are being forced to try different care plans, and to collaborate across long-standing walls.<\/p>\n

The equipment, nursing care, medical practices, medicines and even emergency procedures are different, but pediatric medical staff and hospitals have realized they can care for adults, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disease takes us to places we didn\u2019t know we would go,\u201d said Dr. Valerie Homier, an emergency physician and a leader in surge capacity planning at the McGill University Health Centre.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s hospitals across the country have been planning for this situation.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital, which had the two adult patients, and the Royal Victoria Hospital began their planning together in early March. With the virus affecting adults much more than children, the children\u2019s hospital\u2019s beds were seen as possible spaces for adult patients, said Homier.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally there was some resistance, which was appropriate from a safety perspective,\u201d Homier said.<\/p>\n

But the children\u2019s hospital began training its staff, ordering adult-sized equipment and putting procedures in place to care for adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough a patient is a patient, we do do things differently in pediatrics,\u201d said Cindy McCartney, nurse manager of patient flow at Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

The hospital needed to order adult-size blood pressure cuffs, catheters, incontinence products and other supplies. Even the way that patients are hooked up to the monitors needed to be changed.<\/p>\n

<\/img>

\nA man wears a protective face mask as he walks past the emergency department of the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C. Friday, April 3, 2020. Health-care providers are warning of an unseen toll COVID-19 could take if people die because they are too afraid to go to an emergency room for serious health issues unrelated to the pandemic.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

JONATHAN HAYWARD<\/span> \/ <\/p>\n

THE CANADIAN PRESS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McCartney said the biggest differences are in the hands-on care of the patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic care of an adult in ICU is somewhat different from the care of a child,\u201d she said. \u201cThe early signs of decompensation (deterioration) are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pediatric nurses and doctors were trained by their adult medicine colleagues on early warning signs and how to respond. The teams ran simulation exercises to practise managing a decompensating adult patient and visited the adult ICU to learn on site.<\/p>\n

The normal heart rate and breathing rate also are different for adults, and alternate medications needed to be ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made cheat sheets and put them around the unit,\u201d said Dr. Tanya Di Genova, pediatric intensive care physician and medical director of patient flow at the children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, two adults with COVID-19 were identified as good candidates to be cared for in the pediatric ICU. Although the Royal Victoria Hospital ICU was not at capacity, the complex balance of re-organizing to meet the care needs on the wards, in cardiac units, and in the ICU called for the pediatric hospital contingency plan to be used.<\/p>\n

<\/img>

\nFuneral home workers remove a body from a seniors residence in Verdun, Que., on April 15, 2020.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

Ryan Remiorz\/The Canadian Press<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier to fill beds that are already empty and staffed, instead of creating new beds with new staff,\u201d said Homier.<\/p>\n

The hospitals had previously determined that the best patients to transfer to the children\u2019s hospital would be those who had already been stabilized, had a single medical condition, and whose medical needs were relatively familiar to pediatricians.<\/p>\n

The main life-threatening complication of COVID-19 \u2014 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) \u2014 also is a relatively common condition in critically ill children.<\/p>\n

Other potential patients could be those with medical complications from lifelong conditions such as Crohn\u2019s disease, sickle cell disease or cystic fibrosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe age was less important than the care needs,\u201d said Homier.<\/p>\n

Di Genova was on call last weekend when the two adults, including one on a ventilator, were in the pediatric ICU. Both patients have now been discharged from the ICU, with one still in hospital.<\/p>\n

<\/img>

\n\u201cOur volumes are way, way, way, way down,\u201d says one Ottawa ER doctor. But the story is the same across the country.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe felt like we were prepared and wanted to do it. We couldn\u2019t prepare any more,\u201d said Di Genova.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that came up in discussion with colleagues was that it wasn\u2019t as different as we thought. Although nervous and anxious to start, our team saw that this was out of our norm but it was definitely doable \u00e2\u0080\u00a6 The medicine was not so different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two hospitals are continuing to work together, now planning for a pod in the pediatric emergency department to be sealed off and made available to care for adult patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in it together,\u201d said McCartney. \u201cPeople who didn\u2019t work together before are working together now \u00e2\u0080\u00a6 It\u2019s been an eye-opening experience and will leave us with long-standing transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michelle Ward is a pediatrician, associate professor and journalist in Ottawa.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two adult patients with COVID-19 were treated in a Montreal pediatric intensive care unit this week \u2014 a sign of how hospitals are stretching to accommodate the pandemic.Hospitals in some areas are being forced to try different care plans, and to collaborate across long-standing walls.The equipment, nursing care, medical practices, medicines and even emergency procedures…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[120,162,161,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16442,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233\/revisions\/16442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}