key: cord-0754566-levsbye2
authors: Almuabbadi, Basel; Mhawish, Huda; Marasigan, Bobby; Alcazar, Alva; Alfrdan, Zahraa; Nasim, Nasir; Alharthy, Abdulrahman; Memish, Ziad A.; Karakitsos, Dimitrios
title: Novel transportation capsule technology could reduce the exposure risk to SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers: A feasibility study
date: 2020-07-22
journal: Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
DOI: 10.1017/ice.2020.352
sha: 9b1544add53da000e02803e8717dc286a4b2764c
doc_id: 754566
cord_uid: levsbye2

nan

ICU. All data were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Of these 190 transported patients, 100 patients had been intubated and 90 patients were on oxygen-supportive therapies. Also, 109 HCWs were employed for the transportation of COVID-19 patients: 39 physicians, 20 respiratory physiotherapists, 20 ICU nurses, and 30 paramedics (Fig. 1) . Apart from utilizing the capsule, all HCWs used personal protective equipment according to the World Health Organization recommendations. 5 None of the 109 HCWs became infected. Moreover, all awake (ie, nonintubated) patients reported a high level of comfort during transportation. Full treatment of ICU patients via access ports, which facilitated emergency procedures (eg, intubation and insertion of central lines) has been possible. In conclusion, the insulated patient capsule has proven to be an efficient technology for the transportation of COVID-19 patients. The capsule has shown good compatibility with ventilator circuits and full treatment of ICU patients as well as ambulance stretchers. Most importantly, none of our HCWs was infected in the transportation process. Large prospective studies are required to confirm or refute the present findings.

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Acknowledgments. None.Financial support. No financial support was provided relevant to this article.Conflicts of interest. All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.