Fangcang shelter hospitals: a novel concept for responding to public health emergencies

Abstract

Fangcang shelter hospitals are a novel public health concept. They were implemented for the first time in China in February, 2020, to tackle the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The Fangcang shelter hospitals in China were large-scale, temporary hospitals, rapidly built by converting existing public venues, such as stadiums and exhibition centres, into health-care facilities. They served to isolate patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 from their families and communities, while providing medical care, disease monitoring, food, shelter, and social activities. We document the development of Fangcang shelter hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak in China and explain their three key characteristics (rapid construction, massive scale, and low cost) and five essential functions (isolation, triage, basic medical care, frequent monitoring and rapid referral, and essential living and social engagement). Fangcang shelter hospitals could be powerful components of national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future epidemics and public health emergencies. Development of Fangcang shelter hospitals in WuhanWuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in China, was the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 27, 2020, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan accounted for more than 60% of all confirmed cases in China. 7 The surge of infections placed huge pressure

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients With Diabetes and COVID-19 in Association With Glucose-Lowering Medication

“…The Central Hospital of Wuhan, located in an urban area of Wuhan, is a class A tertiary comprehensive hospital and one of the hospitals designated to treat patients with COVID-19 who are in moderate, severe, or critical condition. Patients with mild disease, who accounted for the majority of total COVID-19 cases and were cared for in Fangcang shelter hospitals (12,13), were not included in our study; thus this cohort study represents the severe end of COVID-19. Most patients included in this study were local residents.…”

“…Accordingly, patients (in Hubei Province) were clinically diagnosed with COVID-19 on the basis of symptoms, exposure, and presence of lung imaging features consistent with coronavirus pneumonia, and those who were further tested as being positive for SARS-CoV-2 were classified as having confirmed COVID-19. Patients with COVID-19 in both categories are required to undergo strict quarantine and clinical observation and treatment in Fangcang shelter hospitals or designated hospitals (12).…”

The challenges and opportunities of a global health crisis: the management and business implications of COVID-19 from an Asian perspective

“…It is worth noting that the organizational capabilities associated with strategic agility are not simply related to resource readiness and allocation; they require coordination mechanisms to be in place to activate and materialize both resources and knowledge bases (Liu and Huang 2018). For instance, the novel concept of Fangcang shelter hospitals entails that Asian countries should possess the organizational capabilities suitable to build and operate them in response to public health emergencies (Chen et al 2020).…”

COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis

“…Changes in hospital demand may have also affected our estimates. At the beginning of the outbreak and in certain settings, hospitals were being used to isolate patients who were unable to isolate effectively at home [11,12]. This means that LoS for patients in some of the earlier studies within this dataset could have been longer due this logistical reason, rather than clinical need.…”