Mitigating healthcare worker risk during the COVID-19 pandemic - experience from a large tertiary maternity centre in the United Arab Emirates

TL;DR

This study examines how a large maternity hospital in the UAE reduced the risk of healthcare workers contracting COVID-19 during the pandemic.

Contribution

The paper presents real-world mitigation strategies and their effectiveness in a maternity center during the pandemic.

Findings

Healthcare workers had a much lower positivity rate (1.19%) compared to the general population (5.78%).

Mitigation measures like PPE, vaccination, and workforce planning helped keep staff infection rates low.

Staff infection trends mirrored the general population's pandemic peaks and troughs.

Abstract

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, healthcare workers (HCW) have been leading the charge in combating it, in spite of being disproportionately affected by the disease compared to the general population. This study describes the measures instituted at the largest maternity center in the United Arab Emirates during the pandemic to mitigate the risk of HCW contracting COVID-19, as well as the effectiveness of those measures. The incidence of COVID-19 amongst healthcare workers at the facility was compared to that in the general population over a 13-month period from February 2021 to February 2022. Data on population testing was obtained from the database maintained by the regional testing lab, while HCW testing data was obtained from the occupational health department at the hospital. The incidence of COVID-19 in HCWs and the general population was compared using summary statistics and charts. Several mitigation measures were instituted to protect HCW during the pandemic including patient traffic management, adequate provision of personal protective equipment, staff vaccination campaigns, infrastructure enhancement, workforce planning, and structured occupational health policies. During the study period the overall positivity rate in the general population was 5.78% (83,005/1.4 million tests) and that for staff was 1.19% (401/33,228 tests). The peaks and troughs on staff turning positive for COVID-19 coincided with peaks and troughs of the pandemic in the general population. The hospital instituted effective mitigation measures in protecting the staff and keeping COVID-19 rates well below the ones encountered in the general population.

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