https://doi.org/10.4081/ecj.2020.9098

Social distancing and dangers of access block to health care services during COVID-19 pandemic

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2020)
Submitted: 11 May 2020
Accepted: 20 May 2020
Published: 19 August 2020
Emergency department, Pandemic, Social distancing, Telemedicine
Abstract Views: 777
PDF: 433
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Mor Saban
morsab1608@gmail.com
The Israeli center for disease control, Ministry of health, Safed, Israel.
Tal Shachar
The Azrieli faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel.

An outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that started in Wuhan, China, has spread quickly, with cases confirmed in 180 countries with broad impact on all health care systems. Currently, the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine or any definitive medication has led to increased use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, aimed at reducing contact rates in the population and thereby transmission of the virus, especially social distancing. These social distancing guidelines indirectly create two isolated populations at high-risk: the chronically ill and voluntary isolated persons who had contact with a verified patient or person returning from abroad. In this concept paper we describe the potential risk of these populations leading to an 80% reduction in total Emergency Department (ED) visits, including patients with an acute condition. In conclusion, alternative medical examination solutions so far do not provide adequate response to the at-risk population. The healthcare system must develop and offer complementary solutions that will enable access to health services even during these difficult times.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, et al. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med 2020;382(8):727–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017
Dan Wang, Ruifang Li, Juan Wang, Qunqun Jiang, Chang Gao, Juan Yang, Lintong Ge, and Qing Hu. Correlation analysis between disease severity and clinical and biochemical characteristics of 143 cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. BMC Infect Dis. 2020 Jul 16;20(1):519. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-020-05242-w
Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, et al. Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia. N Engl J Med 2020; 382(13):1199–1207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316
Ferguson NM, Laydon D, Nedjati-Gilani G, et al. Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand. https://doi.org/10.25561/77482
Smith AC, Thomas E, Snoswell CL, et al. Telehealth for global emergencies: Implications for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). J Telemed Telecare http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1357633X20916567
J. R. Pandemic response: developing a mission-critical inventory and cross-training programme. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44623025_Pandemic_response_developing_a_mission-critical_inventory_and_cross-training_programme
Uscher-Pines L, Pines J, Kellermann A, Gillen E, Mehrotra A. Emergency department visits for nonurgent conditions: Systematic literature review. Am J Manag Care 2013;19(1):47–59.
Christ M, Grossmann F, Winter D, Bingisser R, Platz E. Triage in der notaufnahme. Dtsch. Arztebl. 2010;107(50):892–8.
An P, Chen H, Jiang X, et al. Clinical Features of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Presented Gastrointestinal Symptoms But Without Fever Onset. SSRN Electron J https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3532530
Mohr NM, Campbell KD, Swanson MB, Ullrich F, Merchant KA, Ward MM. Provider-to-provider telemedicine improves adherence to sepsis bundle care in community emergency departments. J Telemed Telecare http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1357633X19896667
Heymann DL, Shindo N. COVID-19: what is next for public health? Lancet. 2020;395(10224):542–5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30374-3

How to Cite

Saban, M., & Shachar, T. (2020). Social distancing and dangers of access block to health care services during COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency Care Journal, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/ecj.2020.9098

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.