Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

To strengthen epidemic prevention, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital reengineers diagnostic and specimen collection procedures and traffic flow for patients suspected of having flu or coronavirus to a one-stop service. Also, a one-stop medicine pick-up window is setup for patients with continuous prescription. This pick-up window is another convenient service to protect patients so that they avoid going inside the hospital. On February 24, two external negative pressure rooms are setup for the important job of collecting specimen under protected environment for both visitors and medical personnel. Deputy superintendent Dr. Wu Binan said, “Every hospital serves as an important stronghold during epidemic prevention period. Hospital needs to diligently control infection to prevent the spread of epidemic and to well protect every staff who are precious to the hospital operation.

Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital starts prevention measures before patients entering the hospital. At the entrance, all visitors are reminded to wear facial mask and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer to wash hands. Infrared body heat detector is placed at the entrance to monitor everyone’s temperature upon entering the hospital. When fever sign is detected, visitors are rerouted to an outside walkway and examined at the external fever screening station by medical personnel. Then they will be checked at X-ray mobile station for any sign of pneumonia. After that, they go to the newly built external negative pressure specimen collection room.

Dr. Chen Kunquan, Director of Emergency Department Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, said that inside the negative pressure specimen collection room, medical personnel can collect specimen for testing, e.g. blood, without coming into direct contact with patients. This is not just practicing pure physical isolation to prevent the spread of virus. Using negative pressure combined with HEPA high-efficiency particulate air will quickly reduce possible spread of virus effectively. Inside the negative pressure specimen collection room, tablet computers are available for hygiene education to help patients understand the epidemic and not be anxious. They receive the correct prevention information inside the specimen collection room.

Deputy superintendent Dr. Wu Binan said, “Medical personnel is human too. They are also our hospital’s precious staff.” Epidemic prevention is everyone’s responsibility and medical personnel’s mission. Hospital serves as the most important shield of protection for everyone. Therefore, other than making sure essential protection resources are up to requirement, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital hopes to control infection affectively to safeguard the health of staff and general public. Dr. Wu expressed his special thanks to the Emergency Department, Infection Control Team, General Affairs Office, and Strategic Planning Office for their efforts in developing and setting up the external negative pressure specimen collection room. He asked all visitors to cooperate with the hospital. Together, every precious life will be safeguarded and epidemic prevention will be diligently carried out.