Home Oxygen and Monitoring for COVID-19 Patients: A Multidisciplinary Team Approach.

Introduction: During the initial COVID-19 pandemic peak, Stamford Hospital implemented a home oxygen program (HOP) to create a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary outpatient initiative without sacrificing a safe discharge. Primary care physicians monitored program participants, whose only indication for remaining admitted was an oxygen requirement. We retrospectively examined participant co-morbidities and outcomes, including death and readmission rates to evaluate HOP safety. Methods: A retrospective analysis of program participants discharged between April 2020-Janurary 2021 was performed. Variables included demographics, oxygen requirement, days enrolled in the HOP, and major comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes (DM), hypertension (HTN), obesity, chronic kidney disease, malignancies and underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Results: Among the 138 HOP participants, ages ranged from 23 to 96 (Mean 65.5), with 47.1% female and 52.9% male. The most represented ethnicity included White (48.6%), Hispanic (29.7%), and Black (15.2%). Patients' average time in the HOP was 19 days, requiring an average of 1.7 L/min of home oxygen. Thirteen patients (9.4%) were readmitted to the hospital with 2.9% secondary to worsening COVID-19 hypoxia, but no deaths occurred at home. A significant relationship was found between age and highest home oxygen need. Patients with COPD, HTN, and DM had significantly higher oxygen requirements (P-value <0.05). Conclusion: Increasing age, underlying COPD, HTN, and DM were associated with higher oxygen requirements in participants. Given limited availability of hospital beds, and no occurrences of death at home, Stamford Hospital HOP safely helped provide care for sicker patients and enhanced resource allocation.

Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Resident Well-Being in a Community Teaching Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been an unexpected crisis that continues to challenge the medical community at large. Healthcare environments have been forced to change dramatically, including for medical residents, who are vital members of the innovative emergency response teams. Articles have previously been published on the effects of crises on the well-being of healthcare practitioners; however, there is a paucity of literature targeting medical residents' experiences and general wellness during devastating events. The objective of our study aimed at understanding the emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents' stress, academics, and support systems. METHODS: An anonymous, voluntary Likert scale questionnaire was sent via SurveyMonkey to Internal Medicine and Family Medicine residents in July 2020. Questions focused on residents' mood; stress levels; sense of support; and academics before, during, and immediately after the first surge of COVID-19 at our hospital between March 13 and June 15, 2020. RESULTS: Residents felt sad, stressed, and overworked during the first wave, as opposed to feelings of neutrality and happiness before and immediately after. Levels of concern for personal and loved ones' safety were significantly increased during and after our first wave. The impact on educational training was rated as neutral. Residents noted that institutional support could be improved by the provision of wellness activities and sponsored social events. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight on resident well-being during the initial months of the pandemic and identifies areas that could be improved. Our results demonstrated that the pandemic affected many aspects of residents' well-being and education, and the lessons learned can help guide healthcare institutions when implementing wellness activities for trainees during subsequent crises.

Culturosity: Fostering Cultural Awareness Among Faculty and Residents in a Community Teaching Hospital.

Cultural awareness is the first step towards building cultural competence. 'he goal of our study was to evaluate the effect of a cultural awareness intervention among faculty and resi- dents in three residency programs at St. Vincent's Medical Center (SVMC). We conducted a pro- spective interventional quality improvement (Qj) project to study three areas pertaining to cultural awareness -knowledge, attitude, andenvironment, by means of a structured questionnaire adminis- tered at baseline and after intervention. 'The in- tervention consisted of participation in carefully designed bimonthly cultural awareness sessions focusing on one country or region at a time and included an introduction to language, food, music, economics, etc. 'here was a statistically significant difference in pre- and post-intervention responses to the questions pertaining to knowledge about dif- ferent cultures. The intervention was successful in decreasing the knowledge gap significantly and, in the process, also improved the participants' per- ception of the overall cultural experience in the program and hospital.

Medical student education improvement using a resident-driven student rotation.

Small community-based residency teaching programs are often entrusted with the task of instructing medical students. In these small programs, sufficient teaching instruction for medical students can be hindered by an ever-increasing workload and lack of a structured curriculum. We designed a resident-supervised rotation for medical students in our department while providing a forum for residents to improve their teaching skills.