Strategies for screening, occupational prevention, and management of COVID-19 in outpatient clinics in Shandong

Abstract

Objective: We hope to analyze the information of outpatients in a tertiary care hospital during the epidemic of COVID-19, so as to formulate effective regulations for the prevention and control of COVID-19.

Methods: We collected information from outpatients from January 28, 2020 to March 2, 2020 and performed the statistical analysis.

Results: During the study period, there were more than 60,000 outpatients. Among them, 404 patients with a body temperature above 37.3°C who had not been to Wuhan and had no contact with people from Wuhan. There were 8 people who had contact with people from Wuhan, such as 4 people with fever, 3 people with normal body temperature but cough symptoms, and 1 person with normal body temperature and no other discomfort. There were 2 patients with high body temperature from the epidemic area in Wuhan, and one novel Coronavirus patient was confirmed as the final result.

Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, outpatient medical staff should enhance their awareness of protection, hospitals should standardize the outpatient COVID-19 prevention and control system, improve the prevention and emergency system, and reduce occupational exposure hazards and the occurrence of post-exposure infections.

Keywords: COVID-19; epidemiological investigations; occupational exposure; outpatient clinic; prevention.