Experience of Resources Management on COVID-19 Epidemic at a Tertiary Medical Center in Northern Taiwan.

Background Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a respiratory infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes infection symptoms including fever, cough, respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, and even loss of smell/taste, so far had caused 489,000 people to be infected with 32,000 deaths. This article aims to develop some strategies in dealing with COVID-19 epidemic to prevent nosocomial infection and ensure the safety of health care workforce and employees. Methods This is a prospectively registered and retrospective descriptive study investigating the clinical characteristics, results of diagnostic tests, and patients' disposition from February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020, at a tertiary medical center in Northern Taiwan. Results There is no nosocomial spreading of SARS-CoV-2 in our facility. The following strategies were followed: information transparency, epidemic prevention resources planning by authorities, multidisciplinary cooperation, informative technologies, immigration quarantine policies, travel restrictions, management of diversion/subdivision, self-health monitoring, social distancing, screening of travel, occupation, contact, and cluster (TOCC) history, traffic control bundling (TCB), training of using personal protective equipment, real-name visiting management, and employee care. The patients' basic characteristics and diagnostic results were gathered. Of the 3,832 cases, about 25.9% had travel history. Most of them were traveling to Asia (419 persons/time, 10.9%) and from China (256 persons/time, 6.7%). Meanwhile, health care personnel accounted for 316 persons/time (8.3%) and cleaning personnel, 6 persons/time (0.16%). The 36 cases who care or contact with confirmed cases have negative results from the COVID-19 test. The most frequent symptoms were fever and upper respiratory infection followed by gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion The above strategies were followed. Patients were stratified based on the risk of TOCC history assessment to ensure safety of health care personnel and patients' appropriate and timely medical services.