The Utility of Preliminary Patient Evaluation in a Febrile Respiratory Infectious Disease Unit outside the Emergency Department

Kang, Jun Sik; Jhun, Byung Woo; Yoon, Hee; Lim, Seong Mi; Ko, Eunsil; Park, Joo Hyun; Hwang, Sung Yeon; Lee, Se Uk; Lee, Tae Rim; Cha, Won Chul; Shin, Tae Gun; Sim, Min Seob; Jo, Ik Joon

The other major problem is that maintaining a separate screening system outside the ED requires considerable personnel and financial resources. During the study period, an average of 12 patients were screened daily in the FRIDU, which means that the screening process was activated every 2 hours, and the FRI-DU required staffing 24 hours a day. For these reasons, the ideal tertiary hospital ED isolation system still may not be enoughalthough most hospitals are still far from the ideal. A study conducted in the United Kingdom in 2007 found that only 24% of 203 hospitals reviewed had isolation facilities available in the ED (19) . A recent evaluation of 48 infectious disease isolation facilities in 16 European countries found that only 18 facilities fulfilled the definition of a high-level isolation unit, and only 34 had all essential equipment for negative pressure (20) . Given that disasters such as the recent outbreak in Korea (5) can affect not only public health but the economy (6), we believe that a more efficient screening process is needed.