Rapid Emergency Department Physical Space Modifications for COVID-19: Keeping Patients and Health Care Workers Safe

Emily G. Wessling; Amanda H. Randolph; Luke A. Neill; Kumar R. Gandhi; Michael Conrardy; Jason D. Chodakowski; Matthew Kippenhan; Timothy M. Loftus; Sanjeev Malik

doi:10.1017/dmp.2021.248

Rapid Emergency Department Physical Space Modifications for COVID-19: Keeping Patients and Health Care Workers Safe

Emily G. Wessling, Amanda H. Randolph, Luke A. Neill, Kumar R. Gandhi, Michael Conrardy, Jason D. Chodakowski, Matthew Kippenhan, Timothy M. Loftus^*, Sanjeev Malik

^*Corresponding author for this work

Emergency Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant strain on emergency departments (EDs) that were not designed to care for many patients who may be highly contagious. This report outlines how a busy urban ED was adapted to prepare for COVID-19 via 3 primary interventions: (1) creating an open-air care space in the ambulance bay to cohort, triage, and rapidly test patients with suspected COVID-19, (2) quickly constructing temporary doors on all open treatment rooms, and (3) adapting and expanding the waiting room. This description serves as a model by which other EDs can repurpose their own care spaces to help ensure safety of their patients and health care workers.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2676-2679
Number of pages	4
Journal	Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
Volume	16
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2021.248
State	Published - Dec 4 2022

Keywords

covid-19
disaster planning
efficiency
emergency care systems
emergency department operations
emergency medicine

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1017/dmp.2021.248

Cite this

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abstract = "The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant strain on emergency departments (EDs) that were not designed to care for many patients who may be highly contagious. This report outlines how a busy urban ED was adapted to prepare for COVID-19 via 3 primary interventions: (1) creating an open-air care space in the ambulance bay to cohort, triage, and rapidly test patients with suspected COVID-19, (2) quickly constructing temporary doors on all open treatment rooms, and (3) adapting and expanding the waiting room. This description serves as a model by which other EDs can repurpose their own care spaces to help ensure safety of their patients and health care workers.",

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AU - Conrardy, Michael

AU - Chodakowski, Jason D.

AU - Kippenhan, Matthew

AU - Loftus, Timothy M.

AU - Malik, Sanjeev

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Rapid Emergency Department Physical Space Modifications for COVID-19: Keeping Patients and Health Care Workers Safe

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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