Emergency Department Changes to Combat COVID-19 in Oman

Our hospital is one of the tertiary care hospitals in Oman receiving COVID-19 (C19) patients. To meet the expected surge of patients, a number of changes to the ED (Emergency Department), especially regarding capacity building and patient flow. At first, few changes were made to the main ED, which mainly includes addition of COVID suspect room (CSR) with use of separate resuscitation area. The major drawback of above-mentioned system was the inability to see more than two patients simultaneously. Later separate COVID ED (CED) was utilized. In CED pending admissions was the major problem, as C19 ward (COVID ward) and C19 ICU (COVID ICU) were becoming full, this problem was solved through central command help. In the normal ED the main problem was the presentation of C19 positive patients, sometimes hiding their symptoms and reaching inside main ED exposing the staff and patients. In order to combat this problem, all patients with acute respiratory problem, even if C19 is not suspected, were taken to the corner cubicle. In this report, the changes made to ED to combat C19 situation is discussed.