ISRRT_COVID-19_book
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Another way to prevent <strong>COVID</strong>-<strong>19</strong> spreading is the rule that isolated patients should stay<br />
isolated. But this is not always applicable e. g. if a CT-scan is needed as you have to transport<br />
the patient to the department of radiology. This task is not easy to manage and can be very<br />
easy for the virus to spread by the fact that a lot of the staff who undertake this task of<br />
transporting patients might get infected. During the pandemic my colleagues and I found<br />
ways to deal with it. We used special, so called ‘closed beds’, for the transport. These are beds<br />
with a foil which covers the bed as a whole like a child’s buggy, similar to that you use with<br />
babies on prams in the rain. Additionally, the transporting staff wear full personal protective<br />
clothing. Our radiologists implemented a very restrictive policy to prevent unnecessary<br />
patient transports to our department for imaging, the justification procedure therefore<br />
adapted and asked referrers to consider alternative imaging techniques that could be done<br />
by the bedside in the ward instead of having the patient imaged in the radiology department.<br />
Thus, where possible, every X-ray imaging procedure should be undertaken on a mobile<br />
machine with similar conditions as you will expect on the ICU. For the next pandemic it will<br />
be helpful to keep in mind that the concept of closed beds was quite effective enough to<br />
protect the transportation team.<br />
Even in the next pandemic the day will come where a vaccination is possible. Then it could be<br />
very helpful to divide your staff in groups. Something like radiology 1 and 2. Because the<br />
vaccine was rare and our team leader found it hard to prioritize which member of staff should<br />
get vaccinated first. So, they decided to take one good opportunity to vaccinate all of us at<br />
the same day. But as some side effects may occur it can, indeed did, lead to personnel<br />
shortfalls; so next time it might be wise to divide staff into groups to minimise the impact of<br />
personnel shortfalls due to vaccination side effects happening again.<br />
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