Recorded infection control messages delay inter-professional communication but are not associated with COVID-19 prevalence or mortality: insights from a national switchboard analysis.
Clin Med (Lond)
; 20(5): e160-e162, 2020 09.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32620592
ABSTRACT
Appropriate dissemination of information to the general public is a key component of the pandemic response. In 2018, recorded infection control advice messages were affixed to 30% of England's automated hospital switchboards during the seasonal influenza and norovirus outbreaks. As the majority of messages were mandatory for all callers, healthcare professionals using the hospital switchboard - including during time-critical emergencies - had their enquiries significantly delayed by these measures. Importantly, published analyses did not demonstrate an association between these messages and patient outcomes. As of May 2020, 85% of NHS trusts made use of infection control messages; on average, these delayed healthcare professionals by 59.4 seconds per call, but had no clear association with patient outcomes from COVID-19. An ongoing national switchboard quality improvement project seeks to establish a gold standard whereby healthcare professionals with urgent enquiries can press 'X' to skip past infection control messages and have their calls triaged immediately.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Communicable Disease Control
/
Infection Control
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Information Dissemination
/
Pandemics
/
Hospital Communication Systems
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Etiology_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Clin Med (Lond)
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom