scholarly journals Description of the characteristics of the clinical incidents reported in 2020 to the voluntary reporting system of a pediatric hospital in Costa Rica

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Robinson Rodriguez ◽  
Enrique Víctor Mora Enrique ◽  
Olga Olga Arguedas Arguedas ◽  
Rita Brenes Solano
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Pediatric Hospital ◽  
Voluntary Reporting ◽  
Social Security Fund ◽  
Security Fund ◽  
Sentinel Events ◽  
Clinical Measures ◽  
Age Range

The objective of this manuscript was to describe the clinical incidents that were sent to the voluntary reporting system during 2020 at the National Children's Hospital of Costa Rica, belonging to the Costa Rican Social Security Fund. A descriptive observational study of the consolidated data that was sent during the months of January to December of the year 2020 was carried out. During 2020, 1.6% of the patients treated in the hospital experienced some type of clinical incident. The total discharges decreased by 38.4% compared to the discharges of the year 2019, however, the reported clinical incidents increased in the year 2020 by 37.6%, especially from the month of August. Sentinel events were not reported this year. The services that made the highest number of reports were Intensive Care (14.3%), General Surgery (12%), Neonatology (9.8%) and Infectiology (9%). The day on which the most incidents were reported was Wednesday (27.8%), in the first hospital shift most of the cases were reported (48.1%) and these incidents occurred predominantly to male individuals (66%). Regarding the age of the patients, the majority were in the age range from 1 year to less than 5 years (36.1%), followed by the age range from over 29 days to under 1 year (24, 1%). Most of the cases were related to the care provided to the patient (63.9%). 41.4% of the incidents required clinical measures but the sequelae were transitory. 51.1% of the cases merited some type of additional medical care to their therapeutic scheme upon admission. 96% of clinical incidents were reported by nursing staff. Most of the clinical incidents (35.3%) in this period were errors related to notes in the digital file.

Policies to control the COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica

2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (S2) ◽  
pp. S218-S226
Author(s):  
Ronald Evans ◽  
Roger Bonilla ◽  
Roberto Salvatierra
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Social Security Fund ◽  
Effective Suppression ◽  
Security Fund ◽  
The Government ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Made In

The objective of this paper is to present a series of policies for the control of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Costa Rican authorities. An exhaustive review of the pandemic control policies was made in the official government media, mainly the Ministry of Health and the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and some collective media. The first wave of the pandemic in Costa Rica was quite mild, allowing the government to address it with a series of quite effective suppression and mitigation measures, which had the unrestricted support of the population. The second wave grew aggressively, causing social discontent due to the economic impact. Due to the ineffectiveness of the “hammer and dance” strategy, the Costa Rican government has rethought that strategy, lifting certain restrictions while recognizing the risk involved in terms of the increase in cases of COVID-19 in cases and deaths.

Parity without Equality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Piscopo
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Female Legislators ◽  
Female President

Jennifer M. Piscopo examines how the crisis of representation in Costa Rica has placed a ceiling on gender equality in representation. The restructuring of the Costa Rican party system and party fragmentation has made electing multiple candidates from any one ballot more difficult. Top spots have become even more prestigious and more likely to be allocated to men, which reduces women’s electoral chances. Corruption scandals, party breakdown, citizen frustration, and economic problems tainted the administration of the nation’s first female president, Laura Chinchilla. Female legislators have often worked to promote women’s issues and feminist policies, but Chinchilla eschewed feminism, even though several of her policies did benefit women. Overall, her failed presidency may create difficulties for other women seeking top political offices and could have negative consequences for views of women in politics. These challenges notwithstanding, Piscopo concludes that Costa Rica remains at the vanguard of women’s political representation in Latin America.

scholarly journals Formación docente inicial y acción socioeducativa: Construyendo una propuesta de implementación del Programa Maestros Comunitarios (PMC)

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Paulette Barberousse-Alfonso ◽  
Marie Claire Vargas-Dengo ◽  
Pamela Corrales-Bastos
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
School Dropouts ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Code Number ◽  
National University ◽  
Community Pedagogy ◽  
Transformative Approach ◽  
Career Program

From a critical and transformative approach, this essay presents inputs and relevant conclusions obtained during the first stage of the project Construyendo una propuesta de implementación del Programa Maestros Comunitarios (PMC), Code number 0166-15 DEB-UNA (UNA, DEB, s. f.), conducted in 2016. Considering our perspective as researchers and professors at División de Educación Básica, the paper addresses a current topic within the socio-educative field to face challenges of contemporary educational models in formal and non-formal areas of elementary education in the Costa Rican context. Our purpose is that students and teachers of the career program Pedagogía con énfasis en I y II ciclos de la Educación General Básica have an overview of the national, social, and educational reality in an attempt to involve them in applying pedagogical actions towards finding a solution to school dropouts at Escuela Finca Guararí, Heredia, Costa Rica. The essay describes the experience of teaching education students and their socio-educational action with the focus on the systematization of the experience in the initial stage of the project. Furthermore, the paper connects with emerging strategic knowledge areas at División de Educación Básica (DEB), such as social and community pedagogy in the context of the National University (UNA) of Costa Rica. It takes over a route already traced at DEB, which proposes more flexible and alternative pedagogic formats to promote educational equity and diversity issues. The paper describes the project background and a theoretical framework, as well as aspects that have been shared by the protagonist actors along the process: students-teachers, host teachers, supervisor professors, school children, and their parents at Escuela Finca Guararí. Conclusions address main results and facts during 2016 in order to show the viability of the project, which is conducted from a public university. Finally, the article also includes an overview of the project’s future in terms of its implementation in the Costa Rican context.

Costa Rica in 1948: Cold War or Local War?

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Olander
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Panama Canal Zone ◽  
First Case ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The years following World War Two produced a strong resurgence of U.S. intervention in Central America and the Caribbean couched in Cold War terms. Although the U.S. intervention in Guatemala to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 has generally been seen as the first case of Cold War covert anti-Communist intervention in Latin America, several scholars have raised questions about U.S. involvement in a 1948 Costa Rican civil war in which Communism played a critical role. In a 1993 article in The Americas, Kyle Longley argued that “the U.S. response to the Costa Rican Revolution of 1948, not the Guatemalan affair, marked the origins of the Cold War in Latin America.” The U.S. “actively interfered,” and achieved “comparable results in Costa Rica as in Guatemala: the removal of a perceived Communist threat.” Other authors have argued, even, that the U.S. had prepared an invasion force in the Panama Canal Zone to pacify the country. The fifty years of Cold War anti-Communism entitles one to be skeptical of U.S. non-intervention in a Central American conflict involving Communism. Costa Ricans, aware of a long tradition of U.S. intervention in the region, also assumed that the U.S. would intervene. Most, if not all, were expecting intervention and one key government figure described U.S. pressure as like “the air, which is felt, even if it cannot be seen.” Yet, historians must do more than just “feel” intervention. Subsequent Cold War intervention may make it difficult to appraise the 1948 events in Costa Rica objectively. Statements like Longley's that “it is hard to believe that in early 1948 … Washington would not favor policies that ensured the removal of the [Communist Party] Vanguard,” although logical, do not coincide with the facts of the U.S. role in the conflict.

Top four types of sentinel events in Saudi Arabia during the period 2016–19

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasser Altalhi ◽  
Haifa Alnaimi ◽  
Mafaten Chaouali ◽  
Falaa Alahmari ◽  
Noor Alabdulkareem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Patient Safety ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Improve Patient Safety ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Common Root ◽  
Private Hospitals ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Sentinel Events

Abstract Background This study discusses the summary, investigation and root causes of the top four sentinel events (SEs) in Saudi Arabia (SA) that occurred between January 2016 and December 2019, as reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and private hospitals through the MOH SE reporting system (SERS). It is intended for use by legislators, health-care facilities and the public to shed light on areas that still need improvement to preserve patient safety. Objectives The purpose of this study is to review the most common SEs reported by the MOH and private hospitals between the years 2016 and 2019 to assess the patterns and identify risk areas and the common root causes of these events in order to promote country-wide learning and support services that can improve patient safety. Methods In this retrospective descriptive study, the data were retrieved from the SERS, which routinely collects records from both MOH and private hospitals in SA. SEs were analyzed by type of event, location, time, patient demographics, outcome and root causes. Results There were 727 SEs during this period, 38.4% of which were under the category of unexpected patient death, 19.4% under maternal death, 11.7% under unexpected loss of limb or function and 9.9% under retained instruments or sponge. Common root causes were related to policies and procedures, guidelines, miscommunication between health-care facilities, shortage of staff and lack of competencies. Conclusion Given these results, efforts should focus on improving the care of deteriorating patients in general wards, ICU (Intensive Care Units) admission/discharge criteria and maternal, child and surgical safety. The results also highlighted the problem of underreporting of SEs, which needs to be addressed and improved. Linking data sources such as claims and patient complaints databases and electronic medical records to the national reporting system must also be considered to ensure an optimal estimation of the number of events.

Vaccine effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca to prevent severe COVID-19 in Costa Rica: A nationwide, observational study of hospitalizations prevalence (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Rosero-Bixby
Keyword(s):  
Single Dose ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Real World ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Effectiveness ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Vaccination Program ◽  
Severe Illness

BACKGROUND The Costa Rican vaccination program uses Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. Real-world estimates of these vaccines effectiveness to prevent hospitalizations range from 90% to 98% for two doses and from 70% to 91% for a single dose. Almost all of these estimates predate the Delta variant. OBJECTIVE To estimate the dose-dependent effectiveness of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines to prevent severe illness in real-world conditions of Costa Rica, after the Delta variant became dominant. METHODS This observational study is a secondary analysis of hospitalizations prevalence. The participants are all 3.67 million adults residents in Costa Rica by mid-2021. The study is based on public aggregated data of 5978 COVID-19-related hospital records from 14th September to 20th October, 2021 and 6.1 million vaccination doses administered to determine hospitalization prevalence by dose-specific vaccination status. The intervention retrospectively evaluated is vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech (78%) and Oxford-AstraZeneca (22%). The main outcome studied is being hospitalized. RESULTS Vaccine effectiveness to prevent hospitalization (VEH) was estimated as 93.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 93.0 to 93.9) for complete vaccination and 76.7% (CI: 75.0 to 78.3) for single-dose vaccination among adults of all ages. VEH was lower and more uncertain among older adults aged 58 years and above: 92% (CI: 91% to 93%) for those who had received full vaccination and 64% (CI: 58% to 69%) for those who had received partial vaccination. Single-dose VEH declined over time during the study period, especially in the older age group. Estimates were sensitive to possible errors in the population count used to determine the residual number of unvaccinated people when vaccine coverage is high. CONCLUSIONS The Costa Rican vaccination program that administered Pfizer and Oxford vaccines are highly effective to prevent COVID-19-related hospitalizations after the Delta variant had become dominant. Moreover, a single dose is reasonably effective, justifying the continuation of the national policy of postponing the application for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to accelerate the vaccination and increase the number of people being vaccinated. Timely monitoring of vaccine effectiveness is important to detect eventual failures and motivate the public based on information that the vaccinations are effective.

Checklist and key of New World species of Omiodes Guenée with descriptions of four new Costa Rican species (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Gentili ◽  
M. Alma Solis
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Type Species ◽  
New World ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
New Combination ◽  
World Species

AbstractOmiodes Guenée is redescribed based on all New World species, including the type species O. humeralis Guenée. Four new species from Costa Rica, O. janzeni sp. n., O. hallwachsae sp. n., O. sirena sp. n., O. ochracea sp. n., are described. Ten new synonymies are established : Phostria disciiridescens Hampson is =O. croeceiceps (Walker), Phostria cayennalis Schaus is =O. grandis (Druce), Omiodes ochrosoma Felder & Rogenhofer and Phryganodes gazalis Schaus are =O. pandaralis (Walker), Nacoleia lenticurvalis Hampson, Phryganodes anchoritalis Dyar, and Phostria duplicata Kaye are =O. confusalis (Dognin), O. cervinalis Amsel is =O. martvralis (Lederer), Nacoleia indicata ab. pigralis Dognin and Botis fortificalis Möschler are =O. metricalis (Möschler). One new combination is recognized: O. pandaralis (Walker) was transferred from Coelorhynchidia Hampson. A key and an updated checklist to the neotropical Omiodes species is provided, including O. indicata (Fabricius), a worldwide pest. Ten species that do not belong in Omiodes are retained until appropriate generic placements are identified.

scholarly journals Assessing Suitable Habitats for Treefrog Species after Previous Declines in Costa Rica

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 577
Author(s):  
Héctor Zumbado-Ulate ◽  
Catherine L. Searle ◽  
Gerardo Chaves ◽  
Víctor Acosta-Chaves ◽  
Alex Shepack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Suitable Habitat ◽  
Minimum Convex Polygon ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
The Status ◽  
Suitable Habitats ◽  
Iucn Assessment

Treefrogs represent 22% of amphibian species in Costa Rica, but gaps in the knowledge about this group of amphibians can impede conservation efforts. In this study, we first updated the status of Costa Rican treefrogs and found that a total of 38% of treefrog species are threatened according to the most recent IUCN assessment in 2019. Additionally, 21% of Costa Rican treefrog species have a high vulnerability to extinction according to environmental vulnerability scores. Then, we predicted the historical climatic suitability of eight target species that we expected to have exhibited changes in their ranges in the last 20 years. We assessed the location of new occurrence records since 2000 to identify recovery, range expansion, or previously underestimated ranges due to methodological limitations. We also estimated the area of each species’ suitable habitat with two metrics: extent of suitable habitat (ESH) and area of minimum convex polygon (AMCP). Six declined species exhibited recovery (i.e., new occurrences across historical range after 2000), with the widest recovery found in Agalychnis annae. We also found that Isthmohyla pseudopuma appears to have spread after the decline of sympatric species and that the range of I. sukia was originally underestimated due to inadequate detection. We found that the ESH was 32–49% smaller than the AMCP for species that are slowly recovering; however, the ESH is similar or greater than the AMCP for species that are recovering in most of their ranges, as well as rare species with widespread ranges. Results of this work can be used to evaluate the risk of environmental threats and prioritize regions for conservation purposes.

scholarly journals Combining Leaf Shape and Texture for Costa Rican Plant Species

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Carranza-Rojas ◽  
Erick Mata-Montero
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Leaf Shape ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Automatic Identification ◽  
Leaf Margin ◽  
Best Value ◽  
Candidate Species ◽  
Image Dataset ◽  
Northeast Us

In the last decade, research in Computer Vision has developed several algorithms to help botanists and non-experts to classify plants based on images of their leaves. LeafSnap is a mobile application that uses a multiscale curvature model of the leaf margin to classify leaf images into species. It has achieved high levels of accuracy on 184 tree species from Northeast US. We extend the research that led to the development of LeafSnap along two lines. First, LeafSnap’s underlying algorithms are applied to a set of 66 tree species from Costa Rica. Then, texture is used as an additional criterion to measure the level of improvement achieved in the automatic identification of Costa Rica tree species. A 25.6% improvement was achieved for a Costa Rican clean image dataset and 42.5% for a Costa Rican noisy image dataset. In both cases, our results show this increment as statistically significant. Further statistical analysis of visual noise impact, best algorithm combinations per species, and best value of k , the minimal cardinality of the set of candidate species that the tested algorithms render as best matches is also presented in this research.

scholarly journals Bone fractures in roadkill Northern Tamandua Tamandua mexicana (Mammalia: Pilosa: Myrmecophagidae) in Costa Rica

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 14802-14807
Author(s):  
Randall Arguedas ◽  
Elisa C. López ◽  
Lizbeth Ovares
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Bone Fractures ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Future ◽  
Tamandua Mexicana

Northern Tamandua Tamandua mexicana is one of the most common roadkill species encountered on Costa Rican highways.  Ten roadkill Northern Tamanduas were collected along different roads in Costa Rica and moved to a veterinary facility where appendicular radiologic studies were undertaken.  The number of fractures present in each individual varied from zero to five (mean=2.6), with only one animal sustaining no fractures at all.  Most fractures were present in the humerus (31%), followed by the ulna and ilium (both 19%), whilst the cranial portion of the body represented the highest number of fractures (61%).  These data can contribute, not only to establishing causes of animal-road-mortalities, but also to the future understanding and decision-making of clinical actions for animals injured on the roads.

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