Elsevier

Journal of Voice

Volume 37, Issue 5, September 2023, Pages 803.e1-803.e9
Journal of Voice

Adjustment of Health-Care Service Delivery Among Phoniatricians and ENT Specialists During the COVID-19 Pandemic, A UEP Survey

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2021.04.017Get rights and content

Summary

Background

Applying measures that prioritize staff safety, while protecting patient safety and care, represents a challenge during the current pandemic. Many documents of recommendations toward safe practice have been developed for this purpose.

Objective

To assess adjustments that have been undertaken by phoniatricians and otolaryngologists in the delivery of health-care services during the pandemic in order to reduce staff exposure to COVID-19 and improve safety.

Study design

Cross-sectional.

Methods

An online self-administered survey was used during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020 to collect data related to demographics of participants, their sources of information, administrative alterations, and changes they adopted when meeting patients for a consultation/procedure/surgery.

Results

The eligible 154 responses were grouped into 4 groups based on country of residence. Alterations to service delivery amongst the different groups were compared.

Conclusions

The majority of participants were following the suggested recommendations to service delivery adjustments, with some inconsistencies in practice across countries.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global health emergency at the end of January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020.1 The current pandemic has brought intense challenges to our health care systems, mandating unprecedented work environment and clinical practice alterations.

Frontline health care workers (HCWs) had a 12-fold increase in the risk of COVID-19 infection.2 Of the first 138 inpatients, 40 were HCWs.3 Voice clinicians, especially phoniatricians and otolaryngologists

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted through a web-based self-administered online survey and accepted responses between June 9 and June 24, 2020. The survey was distributed through the Union of European Phoniatricians (UEP) as well as other communication channels. Data were collected anonymously, and participants were informed of the purpose of the survey.

The survey questions (see appendix) were in English and covered aspects related to demographic data of participants, their sources of

RESULTS

Two hundred two physicians responded to the questionnaire. Forty-six were entirely working from home due to the pandemic, rather than attending a worksite, and accordingly the survey was ended for them at this point. One response was not complete. One response was from a pediatric audiologist. These responses were excluded, and the remaining 154 responses were considered for statistical analysis.

DISCUSSION

This survey carried out during the ‘first wave’ of COVID- 19 pandemic, clearly demonstrated that Coronavirus had a massive impact on how phoniatricians and laryngologists undertook routine elective care for patients. The similarities across countries in struggling with the often-conflicting needs related to offering care for patients and safety for HCWs outweighed the differences.

Medical journals, World Health Organization and local health authorities were found to be the leading sources of

CONCLUSION

This survey was undertaken during the ‘first wave’ of the COVID pandemic. Unsurprisingly, among the physicians that completed it there was some inconsistency in practice. This likely reflects different systems or regulations, attitudes, workplace settings and availability of PPE or SARS-CoV-2 tests at the time of the survey. Even so, similarities outweighed differences.

As knowledge accumulates and the course of the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, service delivery has and will continue to evolve, so

Conflict of Interest

The authors neither received specific funding to this work nor they have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgement

The authors want to thank Prof. Dr. Christina Pflug for her valuable contribution in this work. We also wish to extend our appreciation to all participants who completed this survey.

References (27)

  • WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID19 –11 March 2020. World Health Organization....
  • LH Nguyen et al.

    Risk of COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers and the general community: a prospective cohort study

    Lancet Public Health

    (2020)
  • D Wang et al.

    Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China

    JAMA

    (2020)
  • L Bolton et al.

    Aerosol generating procedures, dysphagia assessment and COVID-19: a rapid review

    Int J Lang Commun Disord

    (2020)
  • L Zou et al.

    SARS-CoV-2 viral load in upper respiratory specimens of infected patients

    N Engl J Med

    (2020)
  • X Cheng et al.

    Otolaryngology providers must be alert for patients with mild and asymptomatic COVID-19

    Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg

    (2020)
  • A Geneid et al.

    Union of the European Phoniatriciansˊ position statement on the exit strategy of phoniatric and laryngological services: staying safe and getting back to normal after the peak of coronavirus disease. (issued on 25th May 2020)

    J Laryngol Otol

    (2020)
  • Speech Pathology Australia Guidance for Service Delivery, Clinical Procedures and Infection Control During COVID-19 Pandemic. Version 3

    (2020)
  • R Kamel et al.

    Safe practice guidance: a review for otolaryngologists during covid-19 pandemic and after reopen process

    Rhinol Online

    (2020)
  • DV Bann et al.

    Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on otolaryngologic surgery: brief commentary

    Head Neck

    (2020)
  • G Setzen et al.

    Guidance for Return to Practice for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery: Part One: American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS)

    (2020)
  • VN Prachand et al.

    Medically necessary, time-sensitive procedures: scoring system to ethically and efficiently manage resource scarcity and provider risk during the COVID-19 pandemic

    J Am Coll Surg

    (2020)
  • Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists (RCSLT) Guidance on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and COVID-19

    (2020)
  • Cited by (1)

    View full text