Innovation of Audio-Visual Triage System in Combating the Spread of COVID-19 Infection and Its Efficacy: A Novel Strategy

University of Lahore

Status

Completed

Conditions

Anxiety Levels

Audio-Visual Triage System

Healthcare Professionals

COVID-19 Spread

GAD-7 Score

Screening Strategy

Treatments

Device: Audio-Visual Triage System (AVT)

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT04621214

IRBEC/BIH/013-2020

Details and patient eligibility

About

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic, frontline healthcare professionals suffered psychological as well as pathological trauma due to the lack of preparation to cope with this unforeseen situation. The protocols to prevent the spread of this disease proved to be less effective than anticipated. In these circumstances, improvement of the existing triage system was felt and an AUDIO-VISUAL TRIAGE (AVT) system was introduced to enhance confidence as well as increase the safety of frontline healthcare professionals. The current analysis was performed from March 21, 2020, to April 28, 2020, until the completion of sixty response forms, at Bahria Town International Hospital, Lahore. Thirty participants (Group A) deployed on visual triage and other thirty (Group B) on Audio-Visual triage for screening suspected cases of COVID-19 infection. Anxiety levels were measured by using the GAD-7 scoring system and the participants of both groups were periodically tested for COVID-19 infection by PCR. Independent t-test was used to evaluate the significance of different variables at a confidence level of 95%.

Full description

A novel strategy 'Audio-Visual Triage' was introduced to boost up the confidence levels, lower down the anxiety levels and the most important factor is to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection spread. This Triage system included Audio system to communicate with patients and access the COVID-19 infection status at recommended distance of 6 feet. The main disturbing factors that were noted on Visual triage system were, 1). Close contact of healthcare professionals with patients and attends, 2). Fear of transmission of infection lead to higher levels of anxiety. To assess the efficiency of AVT Anxiety level were analyzed by using Spitzer et al., 2006, General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scoring system and outcomes were assessed where a score less than 5 is taken as no anxiety, 5-9 interpreted as mild anxiety, 10-14 moderate anxiety, and ≥ 15 as severe anxiety levels.

Enrollment

60 patients

Sex

All

Ages

20 to 38 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Participants performing their duty on visual triage.

Exclusion criteria

Those participants having previous psychological illness, frequently used to use the washroom, had non-serious attitude and poor compliance with the protocols of wearing PPEs were excluded from the study.