After-action reports analyze events and improve knowledge about how to prevent and react to unexpected situations. Anyway, there is no consensus among the templates developed for disaster events reporting, and there is not a specific model for reporting hospital disaster response.

The study was aimed to pilot the use of a new assessment tool for hospital response to natural disasters.

A data collection tool, focused on hospital disaster response to natural disasters, was created modifying the “Utstein-Style Template for Uniform Data Reporting of Acute Medical Response in Disasters” and tested the reaction of the nearest hospitals to the epicenter after the August 24, 2016, Central Italy earthquake.

Four hospitals were included. The completion rate of the tool was 97.10%. A total of 613 patients accessed the 4 emergency departments, most of them in Rieti Hospital (178; 29.04%). Three hundred thirty-six (54.81%) patients were classified as earthquake-related, most with trauma injuries (260; 77.38%).

This template seemed to be a valid instrument for hospital disaster management reporting and could be used for better comprehension of hospital disaster reaction, debriefing activities, and hospital disaster plan revisions.

The 2017 solar eclipse was associated with mass gatherings in many of the 14 states along the path of totality. The Kentucky Department for Public Health implemented an enhanced syndromic surveillance system to detect increases in emergency department (ED) visits and other health care needs near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where the point of greatest eclipse occurred.

EDs flagged visits of patients who participated in eclipse events from August 17–22. Data from 14 area emergency medical services and 26 first-aid stations were also monitored to detect health-related events occurring during the eclipse period.

Forty-four potential eclipse event-related visits were identified, primarily injuries, gastrointestinal illness, and heat-related illness. First-aid stations and emergency medical services commonly attended to patients with pain and heat-related illness.

Kentucky’s experience during the eclipse demonstrated the value of patient visit flagging to describe the disease burden during a mass gathering and to investigate epidemiological links between cases. A close collaboration between public health authorities within and across jurisdictions, health information exchanges, hospitals, and other first-response care providers will optimize health surveillance activities before, during, and after mass gatherings.

The aim of this study was to measure the perception of readiness to manage a sanitary crisis for hospital workers and to study the factors related to this perception.

This study was a cross-sectional study; 408 French hospital workers responded to an online questionnaire. The variables studied concerned the perceived personal preparedness, the perception of colleagues’ and hospital’s preparedness, perception of the situation, and preparatory behavioral acts. Correlations, partial correlations, and multiple linear regressions were applied.

Based on Pearson’s correlations, the higher the participants’ sense of personal efficacy and control over their behavior, the more ready they feel (rp = 0.77*** and rp = 0.55***). The more participants perceive their colleagues as ready and their hospital as prepared, the more ready they feel (rp = 0.52*** and rp = 0.46***). Based on Pearson’s partial correlations, upon controlling the effect of preparedness perception, declared preparedness is not significantly correlated with personal readiness perception (rp = 0.01).

The perception of personal readiness does not depend only on actual preparedness but also on individual and collective variables. Technically, these results confirm the value of relying on psychosocial variables during training. It would be interesting to propose empowerment in training courses. It also seems necessary to demonstrate crisis management efficacy at different levels: institutional, collective, and individual.

In this single-case-by-group comparison, we examine whether previously found cisgender differences in paranoid ideation after a terror attack are also seen in a transgender male emergency worker.

Sixty emergency personnel who were exposed to the 2016 terror attack in Berlin were evaluated 3 to 4 and 21-25 mo after the attack.

On paranoid ideation, the transgender male showed higher scores than cisgender males (+2 standard deviations [SD]) and the overall group (+1 SD).

This underpins the previously identified gender effects. It would be useful to consider specified pre- and postdeployment modules that take cis- and transgender differences into account.

Thea aim of this study was to explore the relationship between Florida nursing home and assisted living facility characteristics and their ability to comply with a new emergency power rule in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

This study used characteristics data on Florida nursing homes (NHs) (N = 680) and assisted living facilities (ALFs) (N = 2940) in operation between September 2017 and January 2019. Logistic regressions were used to determine whether certain characteristics were associated with compliance with the emergency power rule by January 1, 2019.

A total of 219 (32.9%) NHs and 2219 (75.5%) ALFs had an emergency power plan implemented by January 1, 2019. Results suggest having a dementia care unit increased the odds of compliance for NHs, while chain membership, for-profit status, and a higher reliance on Medicaid decreased the odds. Additionally, smaller size, mental health specialty license, and higher reliance on supplemental state funding increased the odds of compliance for ALFs, while nursing care specialty license and for-profit status decreased the odds of compliance.

Policy implications from these results include informing policy-makers on the barriers faced by NHs and ALFs to implement a new regulation that may cause financial difficulties and compromise quality care.

The effectiveness of filtering facepiece respirators such as N95 respirators is heavily dependent on the fit. However, there have been limited efforts to discover the size of the gaps in the seal required to compromise filtering facepiece respirator performance, with prior studies estimating this size based on in vitro models. In this study, we measure the size of leak necessary to compromise the fit of N95 respirators.

Two methods were used to create a gap of specific dimensions. A set of 3D-printed resin spacers and hollow steel rods were used to generate gaps in N95 respirators while worn on 2 participants. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) quantitative fit testing methods were used to quantify mask performance with gaps between 0.4 and 2.9-mm diameters.

Gap size was regressed against fit factor, showing that overall, the minimum gap size to compromise N95 performance was between 1.5 mm2 and 3 mm2.

These findings suggest the fit of a N95 respirator is compromised by gaps that may be difficult to visually detect. The study also adds to the body of evidence supporting the routine use of quantitative fit testing to ensure that masks are well-fitting.

Radiation dermatitis (RD) occurs in 95% of patients receiving radiation therapy (RT) for cancer treatment, affecting 800 million patients annually. We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a historical RD cohort, Radiation Induced Skin Reactions (RISREAC) cohort.

This retrospective study evaluated RD-related clinical documentation for 245 breast cancer patients who received RT at the University of Rochester Medical Center, to understand the RD progression, scoring, and management. All statistical analyses were performed at 0.05 level of significance.

Clinician-documented RD severity was observed for 169 (69%) patients with a mean severity of 1.57 [1.46, 1.68]. The mean descriptor-based severity score of 2.31 [2.18, 2.45] moderately correlated (r = 0.532, P < 0.0001) with documented RD grade. Most patients (91.8%) received skin care treatment during RT, with 66.7% receiving more than 2 modalities.

The RISREAC cohort is the first retrospective cohort established from clinical documentation of radiation-induced skin changes for the study of RD and cutaneous radiation injury (CRI). RD symptom descriptors were more reliably documented and suitable for all skin types compared to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) or Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) grades. A new descriptor-based scoring tool would be useful for RD and CRI.

This study aims to assess the contents of COVID-19 vaccine related videos available on iQiYi, which is a popular video website in mainland China.

The phrases “新型冠状病毒疫苗”(COVID-19 vaccine) and “新冠疫苗”(the abbreviation of “新型冠状病毒疫苗” according to Chinese habits), were searched separately on iQiYi on July 1, 2021. The 200 most popular videos of each search were screened. Video content and characteristics were identified, extracted and independently rated against Global Quality Scale (GQS), Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONCode) and DISCERN principle by the 2 authors.

A total of 90 videos, with a total of 1165596 views, 14498 likes, and 1450 forwards as well as 95 comments at the time of data collection were included in the study. The channels, sources, topics, and formats of the videos were diversified. The majority of videos received high scores on GQS and all the videos partly adhere to HONCode and DISCERN principle.

Overall quality of information on iQiYi regarding COVID-19 vaccines remains good. However, existing evaluation tools cannot reflect the complexity of video websites. New and more effective tools or standards should be developed to help people understand the modern landscape of health communication better.