Challenges faced in establishing a dedicated 250 bed COVID-19 intensive care unit in a temporary structure

Abstract

An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is an organized system for the provision of care to critically ill patients that provides intensive and specialized medical and nursing care, an enhanced capacity for monitoring, and multiple modalities of physiologic organ support to sustain life during a period of life-threatening organ system insufficiency. While this availability of trained manpower and specialized equipment makes it possible to care for critically ill patients, it also presents singular challenges in the form of man and material management, design concerns, budgetary concerns, and protocolization of treatment. Consequently, the establishment of an ICU requires rigorous design and planning, a process that can take months to years. However, the Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) Epidemic has required the significant capacity building to accommodate the increased number of critically ill patients. At the peak of the pandemic, many countries were forced to resort to the building of temporary structures to house critically ill patients, to help tide over the crisis. This narrative review describes the challenges and lessons learned while establishing a 250 bedded ICU in a temporary structure and achieving functionality within a period of a fortnight.

Detrimental effect of diabetes and hypertension on the severity and mortality of COVID-19 infection: A multi-center case-control study from India

“…Results from our multivariate analysis on 573 patients, found that Age, Neutrophil percentage, and DM status were most associated with COVID-19 severity. Further, results from the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test on the entire cohort of 813 patients, while controlling for age as a confounder, confirmed findings from previous analyses and meta-analyses [ [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , s[27] ] that DM is a significant contributor to COVID-19 severity and mortality. Our results agree with the meta-analysis Kumar et al showing that DM was associated with a significant increase in COVID-19 severity (OR of 2.75) and mortality (OR of 1.90) [ 25 ] with similar Odds-ratios.…”

“…Study design: This is a retrospective study record-based that was conducted at a newly raised COVID-19 dedicated hospital under PM Cares fund in New Delhi, namely, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel COVID Hospital [ 19 ]. The study period was from July 13, 2020 to October 14, 2020.…”

Strengthening the ICUs' human resource‐related responses to Covid‐19: A rapid review of the experience during the first year of public health emergency

“…Another 51% of the articles specified the name and/or the type of health organisations they were focussed on. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 66 All of the remaining studies did not specify a health organization of focus or concentrated on groups of respondents within health organisations.…”

COVID-19 on the Ground: Managing the Heritage Sites of a Pandemic

“…These were erected in sports stadiums [47,66], parking lots [67] and public parks (e.g., Central Park, New York, NY, USA) [46]. Examples for these come from countries as diverse as Argentina [66], Brazil [66], France [66] and India [68].…”