Developing a Comprehensive Hospital Response Plan for Communicable Disease Outbreaks- An Infection Control Perspective Communicable Disease Justification and Evidence
Outbreaks of infectious diseases have been attributable to the disruption of global stability. Past decades have seen a considerable rise in infectious disease outbreaks, the impact of which is evident in the deterioration and near collapse of various health systems across the globe (Scarpino & Petri, 2019). Infectious disease outbreaks remain a global health issue and are currently part of WHO agendas. Notable infectious disease outbreaks witnessed in the recent past include the Ebola virus, COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, and measles, among others. Most of these diseases are viral in origin, and their high transmissibility between humans explains why they pose considerable risk to public health. This paper seeks to explore COVID-19 as an established infectious disease, emphasizing a response plan that may be necessary for curtailing its dangerous effects on the general population.
COVID-19 is a disease that is responsible for the ongoing global pandemic. It is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-COV2) (Yang et al., 2020). This disease is highly contagious and is transmitted primarily by respiratory droplets containing this highly transmissible virus. The disease was first identified in Hubei province, China, in 2019 and has since grown to become a global pandemic. It has produced catastrophic effects on global demographics and has been implicated in significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current data, as adopted from the Johns Hopkins University database, suggest that this disease has claimed over 5 million lives worldwide with over 300 million cases.
COVID-19 causes various effects on the human body. Hospitalizations and consequent mortality attributed to COVID-19 are often due to acute respiratory distress evident in covid pneumonia (Yang et al., 2020). The rapid dissemination of this disease has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of infections in many countries. Various healthcare systems across many countries have been overstretched and, in some instances, overwhelmed by the rising number of cases (Blumenthal et al., 2020). Substantial progress has, however, been made in the COVID-19 research. With the isolation of the virus and subsequent clinical research on its presentation, the pathophysiology of the virus, as well as its clinical symptomatology, has adequately been understood. Vaccines have also been developed to curtail its spread and thereby minimize the effects of the virus.
The virus has, however, continued to wreak havoc across various health systems worldwide. The emergence of mutant strains and continued outbreaks across many nationalities means that the world is still under an active threat of the virus. This, therefore, necessitates the establishment of a concrete response plan to further curtail the spread of the virus as well as to minimize the potential socioeconomic effects that have been characteristic of the pandemic. Healthcare providers, being at the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19, maintain a central role in the establishment of this response plan. Nurses, in particular, are critical in care provision due to the increased demands of patients presenting with COVID-19 complications. It is for this reason that a nurse-specific response plan needs to be established to enhance their effectiveness in caring for these patients and to ensure their participation in curtailing the spread of this disease.
Response Plan
The establishment of an elaborate response plan is key to the mitigation of various public health concerns. An effective response plan should be able to identify the major response areas as well as institute a framework to which these response areas are adequately addressed. A COVID-19 response plan should be focused on logistics, triage, control of COVID-19 infection, human resource mobilization, and definition of responsibilities when necessary. Additionally, this response plan should focus on infrastructural support, the provision of evidence-based decision-making tools to guide pharmacotherapeutic approaches to disease intervention, and the mitigation of the impacts of this disease.
Logistical support remains a key area in managing COVID-19. Logistical support entails efforts made by authorities to ensure that everyone has access to COVID-19 screening and testing as well as access to hospitals in case they need it. The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by marked increases in hospitalizations, with many states reaching their maximum bed capacities. Many hospitals have been overwhelmed by the increasing number of patients. This problem was especially worse at the beginning of the pandemic. However, interventions from both the state and federal governments have considerably improved the responsibilities of the healthcare systems to these unprecedented events, as evident in increased numbers of ICU beds, increased num