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Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders

A major challenge for health services worldwide is in providing adequate medical care during mass disasters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights this difficulty. Patient surge, a consequence of most types of disasters that contribute to trauma experiences, is a primary factor in disrupting such...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Kirschenbaum, Alan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776208
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04674-0
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author Kirschenbaum, Alan
author_facet Kirschenbaum, Alan
author_sort Kirschenbaum, Alan
collection PubMed
description A major challenge for health services worldwide is in providing adequate medical care during mass disasters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights this difficulty. Patient surge, a consequence of most types of disasters that contribute to trauma experiences, is a primary factor in disrupting such care as it is composed of worried well persons and those experiencing psychosocial trauma that can severely disrupt and overwhelm effective acute hospital based health care. We review the literature and propose a potential solution framework to reduce such a surge that relies on exploiting community social networks as first responders. We utilize and integrate literature based evidence on patient surge, community disaster behaviors and community based informal social networks to examine reasons for patient surge to hospitals. We then propose that leveraging community based social networks as a potent deterrent for non-critically injured, especially those who have experienced psychosocial trauma or the worried well, from seeking hospital care during ongoing disasters. By emphasizing the social capital inherent in community based social networks, this perspective posits an alternative cost-effective means of reducing patient surge.
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spelling pubmed-79857422021-03-23 Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders Kirschenbaum, Alan Nat Hazards (Dordr) Original Paper A major challenge for health services worldwide is in providing adequate medical care during mass disasters. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights this difficulty. Patient surge, a consequence of most types of disasters that contribute to trauma experiences, is a primary factor in disrupting such care as it is composed of worried well persons and those experiencing psychosocial trauma that can severely disrupt and overwhelm effective acute hospital based health care. We review the literature and propose a potential solution framework to reduce such a surge that relies on exploiting community social networks as first responders. We utilize and integrate literature based evidence on patient surge, community disaster behaviors and community based informal social networks to examine reasons for patient surge to hospitals. We then propose that leveraging community based social networks as a potent deterrent for non-critically injured, especially those who have experienced psychosocial trauma or the worried well, from seeking hospital care during ongoing disasters. By emphasizing the social capital inherent in community based social networks, this perspective posits an alternative cost-effective means of reducing patient surge. Springer Netherlands 2021-03-23 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7985742/ /pubmed/33776208 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04674-0 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Kirschenbaum, Alan
Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title_full Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title_fullStr Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title_full_unstemmed Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title_short Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
title_sort reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33776208
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04674-0
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