[Emergency response plans in France]. / Les plans de secours en France.

Disaster is a risk which health professionals must learn to manage without ever being sure that they will be confronted with it. A health crisis will have potentially significant repercussions within healthcare facilities. Emergency response plans as well as a shared culture enable healthcare workers to face a crisis by being organised.

[White plan and the organisation of emergency response services in France]. / Plan blanc et organisation des secours en France.

The Eemergency plans for outside hospitals (ORSEC) and inside hospitals (white plan) are often linked and must be well structured in order to respond to the tensions created by exceptional health situations. They must be designed, used and updated like toolboxes. How is the chain of care organised? What is the role of the samu (emergency medical assistance service) in the preparation, activation and coordination of the white plan?

[Protecting healthcare facilities]. / Protéger les établissements de santé.

The protection of a healthcare facility means maintaining a permanent approach of alertness for everyone working there. The hospital security plan involves internal and external players (police and emergency services), and requires the regular sharing of information and training.

[Management of a patient with severe limb trauma]. / La prise en charge d'un patient victime d'un traumatisme sévère de membre.

The management of a patient with limb trauma begins with a rapid assessment of the lesions in order to prioritise the treatment of life-threatening lesions, primarily haemorrhage. Severe limb trauma is defined by the presence of specific severity criteria and requires the injured person to be referred to a specialised severe trauma centre. The prognosis is twofold, both vital and functional, based on the speed as well as the quality of immediate pre-hospital care, specific hospital care and the prevention of secondary complications.

[COVID-19-related respiratory distress in emergency departments: reality and perspectives.] / La détresse respiratoire liée à la Covid-19 aux urgences : réalité et perspectives.

COVID-19 was initially considered exclusively as a respiratory disease. It now appears that it is also a systemic disease with vascular inflammation and thromboses. In the most severe forms, these plurifactorial pulmonary lesions are responsible for acute respiratory distress syndrome. The treatment of this syndrome, which causes hypoxemia, requires urgent oxygen therapy. While initial recommendations favoured the rapid use of intubation and mechanical ventilation, experience seems to confirm that it must be delayed as long as possible, in favour of non-invasive ventilation, less aggressive for the patient.

[Assessment of liberal physician's occupational risks management on the exposure to biological fluids]. / Évaluation des pratiques des médecins libéraux sur la gestion des risques professionnels liés à l'exposition aux liquides biologiques.

INTRODUCTION: During their practice, liberal physicians might have a risk of viral exposure to biological fluids. That risk is well-known in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to measure those occupational risks into their own private practice. METHODS: This observational descriptive transversal multicentral, epidemiological study is based on the information collected from 400 physicians (general practitioners, ENT specialists, dermatologists, pediatricians, rheumatologists and gynecologists), working in own private practice in Lorraine. They received by post a confidential survey consisting of multiple-choice and open questions, asking for their activity, their risks of being exposed to biological fluids, their vaccine coverage and their potentially infectious medical waste (PIMW) management. RESULTS: Among 175 physicians who replied to the survey, 153 did invasive procedures and 58 encountered an accidental blood exposure (ABE). The execution of invasive procedures was the main factor in having an ABE (P=0.0023). Around 89.5 % of the complications were due to percutaneous injuries. Still 30.9 % of the physicians always recapped needles and 40 % hadn't a complementary health cover. More than 82 % were up-to-date on mandatory vaccinations (hepatitis B and diphtheria-tetanus-poliomyelitis). In private practice, 97.6 % of physicians sort out blunt objects (prickly or sharp), which is quite satisfactory in comparison with only 60.5 % of them who sort out soft wastes and 44.6 % of blunt objects at patient's home. CONCLUSION: Even if physician's blunt objects disposal in private practice and their mandatory vaccination are satisfactory, "standard" precautions, safety equipment use and soft wastes disposal can be improved.