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The CDC has announced two COCA (Clinicians Outreach and Communication Activity) Calls for this coming week (Tues & Thurs), both dealing with COVID-19.
These 1-hour online presentations are often technical, and are of greatest interest to clinicians and healthcare providers, but also may be of interest to others. Those unable to watch live can access the archived video, usually within 24 hours.
The first webinar - to be held Tuesday, Dec 14th between 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), is to help clinicians prepared their patients for receiving the COVID vaccine when that option becomes available. Vaccine recipients need to know what side effects to expect, and how (and when) to report adverse reactions.
To this end, the CDC/HHS has developed a smartphone app called V-SAFE to allow those who receive the vaccine to report how they are feeling in the days that follow.
The CDC describes V-Safe as:
V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Through v-safe, you can quickly tell CDC if you have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on your answers, someone from CDC may call to check on you and get more information. And v-safe will remind you to get your second COVID-19 vaccine dose if you need one.Your participation in CDC’s v–safe makes a difference — it helps keep COVID-19 vaccines safe.
This webinar also show clinicians how to report more serious side effects via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
What Every Clinician Should Know about COVID-19 Vaccine Safety
Overview
Monitoring vaccine safety is a vital part of the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As COVID-19 vaccines become available, the public’s knowledge and confidence in their safety, both initially and during extended use, is an important part of a successful national vaccination effort. CDC remains committed to ensuring that public health officials, healthcare providers, and the public have accurate and timely information on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
During this COCA call, clinicians will learn how they can educate their patients about what to expect after COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, they will learn how they can play an important role in monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. This includes encouraging patients to enroll in v-safe, a new smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines, and to use v-safe to report how they’re feeling. Clinicians also will learn how to report adverse events (possible side effects) to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
Presenters
Tom Shimabukuro, MD, MPH, MBA
Vaccine Safety Team Lead
COVID-19 Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
David T. Kuhar, MD
Healthcare Infection Control Team
COVID-19 Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Call Materials
To be posted. Please check back.
Call Details
When: Monday, December 14, 2020
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)
Webinar Link:
https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1611264903
Dial In:
US: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666
International numbers
iPhone one-tap:
US: +16692545252,,1611264903# or +16468287666,,1611264903#
Webinar ID: 161 126 4903 Add to Calendar
Thursday's COCA call (1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)) deals with clinician decision making and crisis standards of care during extraordinary times, including overwhelming numbers of patients and/or scarcity of resources due to the pandemic or other disaster.
First, the details on this important COCA Call, then I'll return with a bit more.
Making Practical Decisions for Crisis Standards of Care at the Bedside During the COVID-19 Pandemic= Free Continuing Education
Overview
Healthcare operations and healthcare services delivery change due to scarcity of required resources under pervasive (e.g., pandemic influence, COVID-19) and catastrophic disaster (e.g., earthquake, hurricane) conditions. The standards of care proposed under these unique and challenging conditions must be a reasonable approach to healthcare service delivery that merges public health, ethical, and medical care demands.
During this COCA Call, experts from Hennepin Healthcare and Bellevue Hospital will present background on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) framework, Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations (IOM, 2009), and identify how Crisis Standards of Care apply to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters will also highlight systems-level information sharing and coalition-level coordination activities to help clinicians plan for these potential situations and make medical decisions during a pandemic.
Presenters
Paige Armstrong, MD, MHS
Deputy Lead, Health Systems and Worker Safety Task Force
COVID-19 Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Vikramjit Mukherjee, MD
Director, Bellevue Medical Intensive Care Unit
Bellevue Hospital Center
John Hick, MD
Professor of Emergency Medicine
University of Minnesota/Hennepin Healthcare
Call Materials
To be posted. Please check back.
Call Details
When:
Thursday, December 17, 2020,
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Webinar Link:
https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1613403966
Dial In:
US: +1 669 254 5252
or +1 646 828 7666
International numbers
iPhone one-tap:
US: +16692545252,,1613403966# or +16468287666,,1613403966#
Webinar ID: 161 340 3966 Add to Calendar
Last March, when the world was far less prepared for a surge of critically ill COVID patients, we saw reports of healthcare systems in places like Italy, Iran, and Madrid which were either on the brink - or actually collapsing - under the onslaught of COVID cases.
U.S. and UK hospitals were not immune.
- Last March The Washington Post ran a stark piece entitled Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients.
- Media reports from New York City indicated EMS was limiting when, and for how long CPR would be performed (see NYC PIX II news New EMT directive limits some hospital transports as NYC hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients).
- About the same time, the BMJ (British Medical Journal) published this report:
Covid-19: Doctors are told not to perform CPR on patients in cardiac arrestBMJ 2020; 368 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1282 (Published 29 March 2020)Elisabeth Mahase, Zosia Kmietowicz
Healthcare staff in the West Midlands have been told not to start chest compressions or ventilation in patients who are in cardiac arrest if they have suspected or diagnosed covid-19 unless they are in the emergency department and staff are wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE).
The guidance from the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust says that patients in cardiac arrest outside the emergency department can be given defibrillator treatment if they have a “shockable” rhythm. But if this fails to restart the heart “further resuscitation is futile,” it says.
(Continue . . . )
While we think of triage as something that only happens at the scene of major disasters, like plane crashes or train wrecks, it can also occur inside hospitals when patient demands outstrip available resources.
Some past blogs on crisis standards of care include:
Standards Of Care During A Pandemic: CPR & Cardiac Arrest
HHS ASPR-TRACIE: COVID-19 Crisis Standards of Care Resources
Contemplating A Different `Standard of Care'
Cold Calculations: The Realities Of Ventilator Triage
While we are arguable better prepared to deal with patient surge this winter, some hospitals may find themselves overwhelmed, and so clinicians need to have guidelines, and be prepared to make difficult decisions under extraordinary conditions.
