Personal protective equipment and doffing procedures in out-of-hospital practice: assessment with a contamination simulation.

Background: The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by emergency medical services (EMS) providers requires specific attention, as it takes place in out-of-hospital unsecured settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate which PPE gown was less contaminating during doffing procedures in an EMS setting. Six well-trained healthcare worker (HCW) subjects tested 4 different gowns: (1) surgical gowns (SG), (2) full body coveralls (FBC), (3) self-made alternative PPEs (SMP), and (4) non-surgical isolation gowns (NSIG).

Collective Critical Care Ambulance: an innovative transportation of critical care patients by bus in COVID-19 pandemic response.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the number of available Intensive Care beds in France did not meet the needs, it appeared necessary to transfer a large number of patients from the most affected areas to the less ones. Mass transportation resources were deemed necessary. To achieve that goal, the concept of a Collective Critical Care Ambulance (CCCA) was proposed in the form of a long-distance bus re-designed and equipped to accommodate up to six intensive care patients and allow Advanced Life Support (ALS) techniques to be performed while en route.