Resumption of the Treatment for Non-COVID-19 Gynecologic Patients after Lifting Lockdown: Experiences from Wuhan

Abstract

Background: To share our experiences of resumption of the treatment for gynecologic patients after lifting lockdown in a hotspot area of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)pandemic.Methods: The triage process used to resume the medical activities for gynecologic patients at the Wuhan Union Hospital after a 76-day lockdown of the city is described and its effectiveness to avoid COVID-19 nosocomial transmission is shown.Results:The non-emergency patients are pre-triaged by contact history and body temperature at outpatient clinic and negative COVID-19 screening tests are required for an admissionin the buffering rooms at the gynecologic department. The buffering lasts for at least three days for symptom monitoring and a second round of COVID-19 tests before they can be transferred to the regular gynecologic wards. For patients who need emergency surgery, the first screening should be completed at the quarantine wards after the surgery, followed by buffering at the gynecologic department. We received 19298 outpatient visits, admitted 326 patients, and performed 223 operations in the first two months after the lockdown was lifted, and no single COVID-19 case occurred in the hospitalized patients while the proportion of potentially high-risk patients with cancer and severe anemia were increased in comparison with the same period in 2019 and the latest two months before the lockdown.Conclusions:We provide an effective triage system with buffering at two levels to guarantee safe and timely treatment fornon-COVID-19 gynecologic patients in a post-lockdown phase.