Becker's Hospital Review

8 INFECTION CONTROL & PATIENT SAFETY Patient dies after leaving Wisconsin hospital ER due to long wait By Anuja Vaidya A 25-year-old woman who sought care at Milwaukee-based Froedtert Hospital's emergency room and le to find quicker access to care, died soon aer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Tashonna Ward, a teacher at a child care center, began feeling chest pain and having breathing problems Jan. 2. Ms. Ward's sister took her to the ER at Froedtert, where they checked in a little before 5 p.m, according to a Milwaukee County medical examiner's report obtained by the Journal Sentinel. ER staff conducted a chest X-ray, which showed Ms. Ward had an enlarged heart. Ms. Ward was then asked to stay in the waiting room. e medical examiner's report does not say whether Ms. Ward was seen by a physi- cian aer that or whether more tests were performed, but according to phone logs, text messages and Ms. Ward's posts on Facebook, she was le in the waiting room and told she might have to wait two to six hours to see a physician. She le the ER at 7:30 p.m., aer waiting nearly two and half hours, to find an urgent care clinic, according to the medical examiner's report. Froedtert Hospital staff called Ms. Ward at 8:39 p.m., by which point Ms. Ward had collapsed and was being brought back to Froedtert in an ambulance. She arrived at the hospital a little aer 9 p.m., but she was un- responsive and pronounced dead soon aer. e medical examiner determined that Ms. Ward's cause of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease. "e family is in our thoughts and has our deepest sympathy. We cannot comment fur- ther at this time," a spokesperson from the hospital told the Journal Sentinel. n World is 'dangerously' unprepared for next pandemic, WHO head says By Mackenzie Bean T he head of the World Health Organization said the world may be "dangerously" unpre- pared for a disease pandemic at an executive board meeting Feb. 3, reported CNBC. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye- sus, PhD, urged the group's member countries to invest more in preparedness, not panic. "For too long, the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect," Dr. Tedros said, according to a meeting transcript obtained by CNBC. "We throw money at an outbreak, and when it's over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one." For example, the world has spent more than $1 billion responding to the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak, which started in 2018. However, Congo's neighbor Uganda spent just $18 million in outbreak preparedness before the virus crossed its border, according to Dr. Tedros. His remarks come amid international attention on China's growing novel coronavirus outbreak, which has sickened more than 92,000 people since early March. n Millennials most likely to skip flu shot, survey finds By Mackenzie Bean A nti-vaccine sentiment may be fueling many millennials' decision to skip the flu shot, according to a survey from the American Academy of Family Physicians. Wakefield Research conducted the online survey on behalf of AAFP, polling 1,500 Americans ages 25-73 between Nov. 27 and Dec. 9, 2019. Five survey findings: 1. About half of Americans (51 percent) did not get a flu shot this season. 2. Millennials were most likely to skip the flu shot. Fifty-five percent had not gotten vaccinated when surveyed, and 33 per- cent said they were not planning to get the flu shot this season. 3. About 61 percent of millennials who knew about the anti-vac- cine movement said they agreed with some of its beliefs. Just 52 percent of adults and 42 percent of baby boomers said the same. 4. African American respondents were least familiar with the anti-vaccine movement of all respondent groups. However, among individuals who were familiar with the movement, African Americans were most likely to say they agree with anti-vaccine sentiment. 5. Men were more likely to underestimate the flu's dangers than women. Twenty-three percent of men reported skipping vaccination because they don't think the flu is serious, com- pared to 5 percent of woman. n

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