Abstract
Since February 2020, Italy has been faced with the dramatic spread of novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This impetuous pandemic infection forced many hospitals to reorganize their healthcare systems. Predicting a rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within our region, the Department for Women’s and Children’s Health promptly decided (i) to revise the distribution of the clinical areas in order to create both designated COVID-19 and COVID-19-free areas with their own access, (ii) to reinforce infection prevention control (IPC) measures for all healthcare workers and administrative staff and (iii) to adopt the new “double-gate approach”: a phone call pre-triage and nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 detection before the admission of all patients and caregivers. Between 21 February 2020 till 04 May 2020, only seven physicians, two nurses and two of the administrative staff resulted positive, all during the first week of March. No other cases of intra-department infection were documented among the healthcare workers since all the preventive procedures described above were implemented. It is predicted that similar situations can happen again in the future, and thus, it is necessary to be more prepared to deal with them than we were at the beginning of this COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
On 21 February 2020, the first COVID-19 positive case in a 76-year old man in Vo, a small town in the province of Padua, Italy, was reported. The same evening, his two grandchildren were in the Pediatric Emergency Room of Padua University Hospital due to household exposure and that evaluated in the Pediatric Emergency Room of Padua University Hospital due to household exposure represented the first contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in our hospital
nasopharyngeal swab swab (NPS) screening was performed on a 20-day basis, but for those healthcare workers dealing with COVID-19 patients, all anesthesiologists and those working with fragile patients NPSs were performed every days
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what contributed to this success; we can only state that the comprehensive measures which were implemented resulted very effective at a time during which the entire city of Padua was locked and the “Entropy” of the Department decreased significantly
Summary
On 21 February 2020, the first COVID-19 positive case in a 76-year old man in Vo, a small town in the province of Padua, Italy, was reported The same evening, his two grandchildren were in the Pediatric Emergency Room of Padua University Hospital due to household exposure and that evaluated in the Pediatric Emergency Room of Padua University Hospital due to household exposure represented the first contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in our hospital. The Department for Women’s and Children’s Health (W and CHD) of Padua is one of the eight departments according to which the hospital is articulated; functionally it is a “Children’s Hospital departments according to which the hospital is articulated; functionally it is a “Children’s Hospital within a Hospital”, functioning as a tertiary pediatric care center.
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