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- Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Doha, Qatar. [1]
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Implementation of a drive-through testing clinic in Qatar for residents having recently returned from a country with a COVID-19 travel warning
Introduction: The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused chaos around the world. At the onset of the virus’ detection in the State of Qatar a free-testing system was rapidly established to invite individuals who had recently returned from countries with a COVID-19 disease travel warning to avoid putting other people at risk. The testing site needed to be accessible to individuals without requiring them to enter the hospital and congregate in a waiting area. The aim of this article is to share our experience with the early implementation of a drive-through testing clinic using the invited person's vehicle as an isolation compartment during screening to minimize person-to-person contamination.
Methods: A Hamad Medical Corporation site was selected to stage a drive-through testing facility to avoid congestion and offer space to facilitate the process. A process was rapidly agreed upon and staff received the required training regarding infection control measures and documentation. At the testing site individuals were subjected to the following steps: registration and history taking temperature measurement swabbing and receipt of a sick leave certificate and a flyer about self-quarantine.
Results: Over the first six days of implementation the relevant authorities determined that 687 individuals had to be contacted 103 attended their testing appointment in that period and an additional 327 people (close relations of the individuals contacted or individuals contacted but without a health card) also subjected themselves to the testing process which took a median time of 11 minutes 39 seconds. No individual exhibited symptoms that warranted immediate isolation while they were at the drive-through testing clinic. However four individuals were diagnosed with COVID-19 following laboratory analysis of the swab taken and followed up. The median time between swab collection and laboratory testing was 13 hours 41 minutes 59 seconds.
Conclusions: Collaboration among various key health governmental and travel industry partners was essential to the successful and rapid implementation of a COVID-19 drive-through testing clinic in the early days of the pandemic in Qatar. The general public reacted well to this process. Communication coordination and planning were identified as critical factors at every step of the process. It started from the initial call to the travelers who had recently returned from a country with a newly instituted travel warning and concluded by them leaving with their sick leave certificate and an information flyer with reminders about preventative infection control measures and encouraging them to self-quarantine after having been swabbed.
Embracing healthcare delivery challenges during a pandemic. review from a nodal designated COVID-19 center in qatar
Hospitals and healthcare systems are instrumental in the formulation and delivery of a coordinated response to disaster management especially epidemics. In healthcare policy and strategy formation there are only trade-offs which with uncertainty are akin to gambles. National organizations play a key role in pandemics through the expression of physician motivation. Effective strategies can facilitate physician action through economies of scale that lower the costs for physicians to meet both community and patients' needs. Moreover no matter how well clinicians are motivated and positioned to act their collective actions are likely to fall short without complementary systems for population-based care that require the operational support of an organization. This review of institutional policy implementation and frameworks intends to highlight how a nodal-designated COVID-19 center in Qatar managed to control the menace by altering its procedural sets and work arrangements to augment an integrated intrinsic response to a briskly emerging conceivably complex situation. This outcome was achieved under the guidance of a national leadership team effectively adapted to its specific challenges by building on current medical evidence management routines proficiencies and health system capacity. This ambitious drive started with the cohesion of services and implementation of evidence-based protocols by assigning a physician-led team to research strategize and organize improved patient flow and information by arranging analytical compliance and preparedness. Through these service approaches and ongoing efforts HMGH has realized significant outcome improvements such as increasing capacity building reducing healthcare waste and increasing patient satisfaction rates whilst successfully achieving significantly lower COVID-19 mortality both in terms of absolute numbers and as percent population compared to many developed countries in the world. The strategies outlined in this article might not be all-inclusive or fit other healthcare system models but they generate a veritable interest to pursue and be subjected to further rigorous study.