Strategies to prevent COVID-19 transmission in the emergency department of a regional base hospital in Korea: From index patient until pandemic declaration

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe the timely strategies used to prevent the spread of the emerging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and present the activities performed in a regional base hospital in South Korea, from the identification of the index patient until the pandemic declaration. METHODS: This is a descriptive study detailing the step-by-step guidelines implemented to manage COVID-19 in a regional tertiary base hospital from January to March 2020. We described our three-phase response to the COVID-19 outbreak as per the national and global quarantine procedures applied during each critical event and highlighted the activities implemented from the perspective of public health crisis preparedness involving emerging infectious diseases. RESULTS: During the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea, we improved and implemented a rapid and flexible screening system for visiting patients using patient history and radiological testing and created a separate isolation zone for patients under investigation. This active identification-isolation strategy has been effectively applied in the COVID-19 outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: The step-by-step enforced strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, though not perfect, adequately reduced the risk of transmission of the highly contagious infectious disease in the hospital while maintaining the emergency medical system.