Establishing a standardized FUO emergency department: design and practice in dealing with COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in January, 2020, the fever of unknown origin (FUO) emergency department has become the first station for disease prevention and identification in hospitals.Establishing a standardized FUO emergency department within a short period of time has become the key to preventing and controlling COVID-19 in densely populated Chinese cities.Methods: Based on the lean management model, the research group established a process of less-link visits, which sees reduced contact between patients and physicians during diagnosis and treatment, and zerocontact consultation through lean workflow and value stream analysis. Three steps were implemented to improve the operations of the FUO emergency department: the rapid establishment of an isolation zone, the refinement of duty and protection configuration, and the use of Internet and technology to establish a fullprocess follow-up consultation system.Results: (I) Tests related to COVID-19 screening are all completed in the FUO emergency department; (II) 12 new isolated observation rooms have been built; (III) hospital visiting time, waiting time for consultation, and the time from pre-examination to virus screening has been shortened from 18 to 8 hours, from 2 hours to 10 minutes, and from 34 to 3 hours, respectively; (IV) the transfer distance has been shortened from 450 to 20 m, and the observation time has been shortened from 72 to 26 hours. The median waiting time for image examination has been reduced from 40 to 3 minutes, and the moving distance has been shortened from 800 to 10 m; (V) the diagnosis and treatment process is facilitated by 5G, achieving zero contact between doctors and patients.Conclusions: Through the implantation of information technology, the local transformation of the site, the rational allocation of medical teams and the planned distribution of protective equipment, in a short period of time, individual medical institutions can set up a safe FUO emergency department to provide 24hour screening and detention services. Establishing an FUO emergency department with lean management and realizing the management approach of combining daily operation with prevention and control could help China and other countries to handle the outbreak of fulminant infectious diseases.

Construction of a 5G-based, three-dimensional, and efficiently connected emergency medical management system

“…Similar to most emergency departments, we are also facing the challenges of the pandemic [ 6 , 17 ]. Also, like the emergency departments in other hospitals, we have developed a stringent triage process to avoid nosocomial infections [ 18 , 19 ]. Concurrently, the ward is managed with the help of 5G [ 20 ].…”

Eye-tracking study of public acceptance of 5G base stations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…COVID-19 has changed how the public socializes. 5G technology has gradually gained public visual attention and support during the pandemic, and 5G base stations are increasingly being recognized by the public (Abubakar et al, 2020;Chen et al, 2020). The deployment of 5G networks has great significance for the construction of the modern economic system of a country and the upgrading of its industrial structure.…”

“…In the critical stage of the fight against COVID-19, 5G technology has been widely used in various epidemic prevention and control scenarios. Owing to its advantages of high-speed wireless transmission, low latency and hyperconnectivity, 5G plays an important role in communicating real-time and valuable information through wireless broadband networks (Abubakar et al, 2020;Chen et al, 2020). During the resumption of work and production, 5G also provided strong network technical support for people's daily life, office and learning from offline to online, highlighting the importance of communication technology in maintaining a smooth social network and the flexibility of the economic system.…”

Process Improvement Approaches for Increasing the Response of Emergency Departments against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…In this document, impacts on the identification of faults in a showcased hospital ED, as well as possible advanced solutions propelling the reduction of COVID-19 transmission within the health personnel and patients are devised. Additionally, we identified a research authored by Chen et al [53] using lean manufacturing to upgrade the adjusted workflow and value flow of an ED. Similarly, Casiraghi et al [52] used FMEA for early evaluation and rapid risk prediction, which contributed to more successful diagnosis and consequently increased the likelihood of complete recovery.…”