Reduction in Hospital Transfers at a US COVID-19 Alternate Care Site: Maintaining Surge Capacity Support in Imperial County, California.

Objective: The transfer rate for patients from an Alternate Care Site (ACS) back to a hospital may serve as a metric of appropriate patient selection and the ability of an ACS to treat moderate to severely ill patients accepted from overwhelmed health-care systems. During the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, hospitals worldwide experienced acute surges of patients presenting with acute respiratory failure.

Methods: An ACS in Imperial County, California was re-established in November 2020 to help decompress 2 local hospitals experiencing surges of COVID-19 cases.

Vascular and central hemodynamic changes following exercise-induced heat stress.

This study examined the effects of moderate exercise-induced heat stress (EIHS) on vascular function, central hemodynamic load and indices of coronary perfusion. Vascular-hemodynamic measures were collected in 12 healthy men (aged 22±3 years) pre and post 100 minutes of moderate, intermittent exercise in two randomized conditions: heat stress (HS; wearing firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE)), and no heat stress (NHS; wearing a cooling shirt and equivalent PPE weight). Aortic blood pressure, reflected wave pressure (Pb), systolic (SPTI) and diastolic pressure time-integral (DPTI), and aortic stiffness were assessed before and after each condition.

Effect of exercise, heat stress and dehydration on myocardial performance.

Background: Myocardial dysfunction is a well-documented outcome of extended periods of high cardiac output. Whether similar effects occur during firefighting, an occupation characterized by repeated periods of work compounded by dehydration and heat stress, is uncertain.

Aims: To investigate the independent and combined effects of moderate heat stress and dehydration on indicators of myocardial performance following intermittent, submaximal treadmill exercise while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

The effect of precooling on cardiovascular and metabolic strain during incremental exercise.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of precooling on the chronotropic index defined as the slope of the heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake during incremental exercise. Ten men performed incremental exercise following 2 conditions: control (rest in a thermoneutral laboratory, 21.5 ± 0.

Effect of base layer materials on physiological and perceptual responses to exercise in personal protective equipment.

Ten men (non-firefighters) completed a 110 min walking/recovery protocol (three 20-min exercise bouts, with recovery periods of 10, 20, and 20 min following successive bouts) in a thermoneutral laboratory while wearing firefighting personal protective equipment over one of four base layers: cotton, modacrylic, wool, and phase change material. There were no significant differences in changes in heart rate, core temperature, rating of perceived exertion, thermal discomfort, and thermal strain among base layers. Sticking to skin, coolness/hotness, and clothing humidity sensation were more favorable (p < 0.