Mukherjee Pratik, Lim Tze Chwan, Chawla Ashish, Chou Hong, Peh Wilfred C G
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Woodlands Health Campus, Singapore.
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore.
BJR Open. 2020 Jun 19;2(1):20200017. doi: 10.1259/bjro.20200017. eCollection 2020.
The rapid and mostly uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic over the past 4 months has overwhelmed many healthcare systems worldwide. In Singapore, while our public healthcare institutions were considered well prepared due to our prior experience with the SARS outbreak, there was an unexpected surge of infected patients over the recent 2 months to deal with. We describe our radiology department's experience in modifying operational practices and implementing strict infection control measures aimed at minimizing disease transmission and mitigating the potential impact of possible staff infection. From the perspective of serving a medium-sized regional hospital and limited by physical and manpower constraints, our radiology department had to adapt quickly and modify our initial responses and practices as the disease scenario changed. We have also enumerated some guidelines for planning future radiology departments.
在过去4个月里,2019冠状病毒病疫情迅速且大多处于失控状态地蔓延,使全球许多医疗系统不堪重负。在新加坡,尽管由于我们之前应对严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)疫情的经验,公共医疗机构被认为准备充分,但最近两个月仍出现了感染患者数量意外激增的情况需要应对。我们描述了放射科在调整操作流程和实施严格感染控制措施方面的经验,这些措施旨在将疾病传播降至最低,并减轻工作人员可能感染的潜在影响。从中型地区医院的服务角度出发,且受到物理空间和人力限制,随着疫情形势的变化,我们放射科不得不迅速适应并调整最初的应对措施和做法。我们还列举了一些规划未来放射科的指导原则。