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. 2022 May 11:15:1083-1088.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S358096. eCollection 2022.

Laboratory Surge Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Incident Command System Approach

Han-Ni Chuang #  1 , Chien-Hung Shih #  1 , Hung-Wen Tsai  2 , Rong-San Jiang  1 , Tzu-Hung Hsiao  2   3   4 , Po-Yu Liu  5 , Yee-Jee Jan  6 , Jiunn-Min Wang  6
Affiliations

Laboratory Surge Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Incident Command System Approach

Han-Ni Chuang et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the critical significance of effective diagnostics in outbreak response. In Taiwan, the COVID-19 wave in May 2021 led to a rapidly growing demand for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests. To meet the challenge, an extensive system-wide emergency preparedness plan, hospital emergency incident command system (HEICS), was developed to deal with emergencies involving healthcare systems. During the wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, a 19.4-fold increase in SARS-CoV-2 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) diagnostic tests occurred in the hospital. The incident commander of TCVGH reviewed COVID-19 related events daily and purchased a high-throughput PCR machine for SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostic tests. In addition, the Department of Operations was responsible for staff scheduling and educational training. The turn-around times of SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests were shortened from 21.2 hours to 5.8 hours in the second week of the COVID-19 wave. Implementation of HEICS integrated resources could be helpful for expanding surge capacity during future outbreaks.

Keywords: COVID-19; hospital emergency incident command system; pandemics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Development of hospital emergency incident command system (HEICS) in TCVGH.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The laboratory surge in SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests in TCVGH at the third week.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Turnaround times for SARS-CoV-2 PCR test was decreased from 21.2 hours to 5.8 hours at the third week.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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