Covid 19 preparedness - a survey on the preparedness of emergency medicine departments across covid 19 in one line if possible

Background: COVID 19 pandemic had affected human lives globally and hospitals were overwhelmed by the abundance of cases. This study aims to understand the preparedness of emergency medicine departments across India in managing COVID 19 pandemic and the evolution of preparedness over the course of time. Methods: This is an online cross sectional multi centric survey based on a questionnaire completed by the head of the departments of the secondary and tertiary care centre emergency medicine departments across India during a period of May – July 2020 (three months). The questionnaire had 59 questions divided into nine headings. The questionnaire was repeated after a period of one year in October – December 2021 (three months). The results were scored for comparison. Results: A total of 65 hospitals responded to the questionnaire of which 59 were included in the study in Survey 1 conducted during May – July 2020. In survey 2, the same questionnaire was sent to all those 59 hospitals, of which only 28 hospitals responded. Comparison showed an increase in the availability of dedicated space for COVID cases in survey 2 (p= 0.05) and a decline in safety measures adopted by hospitals in survey 2 compared to survey 1 (p= 0.023). Questions on parameters like planning, education, personal protective equipment, liaison, and cleaning protocols had better scores in survey 2, although not statistically signicant. Questions on other parameters like teleconsultation facility, hospital safety measures and management of non-COVID cases did not show satisfactory improvement in survey 2. Conclusion: Presence of a well written down and practiced protocol for any major infectious outbreak would help in uniform preparation across the health care settings and thereby improving patient care.