How IT preparedness helped to create a digital field hospital to care for COVID-19 patients in S. Korea

• Published in: NPJ digital medicine Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 157
• Main Authors: Jung, Se Young, Lee, Ho-Young, Hwang, Hee, Lee, Keehyuck, Baek, Rong-min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03.12.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/700/1538; 692/700/228/415; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; COVID-19; Digital technology; Electronic health records; Emergency preparedness; Health care delivery; Health informatics; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Pandemics; Perspective; Telemedicine; South Korea
• ISSN: 2398-6352; 2398-6352
• DOI: 10.1038/s41746-020-00366-4

South Korea has overseen one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks outside China with over 8162 confirmed cases reported by 15 March 2020. The government succeeded in curbing the spread of the disease until mid-February. However, the number of confirmed cases exponentially increased since mid-February, when the number of cases increased because of a secretive religious organization in Daegu, changing the strategy from containment to mitigation of COVID-19, as the government failed to prevent mass infection via intensive quarantine and extensive epidemiological intervention (Fig. 1). In Daegu, the medical system was at the brink of collapse. Although the number of new patients with COVID-19 increased rapidly, patients waiting to be admitted suddenly deteriorated and died at home. In order to prevent the collapse of the entire medical system, the government started to operate “community treatment centers (CTCs).” In addition, the government applied the standards for hospitalization in the national negative pressure care units more strictly. CTCs are facilities that are under the care of the daily medical staff. Before the admittance of patients with COVID-19, the principle was that all individuals infected with COVID-19 would be hospitalized and treated in a negative pressure room, regardless of their risk. However, after experiencing mass dissemination of COVID-19 in Daegu, the Korean government revised the triage strategy to prevent the depletion of medical resources.