Cabin hospital for COVID-19 patients: Attention should be paid to hospital infection prevention, humanistic care, and privacy protection.

Since the outbreak of COVID‐19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the situation regarding COVID‐19 in China is very serious. In order to get all patients admitted to the hospital, cabin hospitals were built in exhibition center and sports venues to centrally treat mild patients. The cabin hospital, known as the ship of life and hope, is the key strategy in the fight against COVID‐19 in China. The Zhejiang Provincial Medical Team, led by the authors, took over the Huangpi stadium cabin hospital on February 10th. From cabin initiation until its closing, 223 people were admitted and treated, achieving a good performance of zero patient death, zero infected medical staff, and zero staff complaints.

Because of the rapid spread of the epidemic, a number of countries around the world began to build cabin hospitals to treat COVID‐19 patients. , In this paper, based on an analysis of the construction and management practice of Huangpi stadium cabin hospital, we propose solutions regarding the employment of cabin hospitals during the COVID‐19 epidemic.

Hospital infection prevention and control is the key to fighting COVID‐19. Combined with the management requirements of “three areas and two channels” in hospital infection prevention and control and the actual conditions of the cabin hospital, a layout of the prevention and control channel was conducted (Figure 1). All staff (including security and cleaning staff) must be trained repeatedly. The supervision post was set up, and nurses were assigned supervisory responsibility for every shift. Attention must be paid to the key points of monitoring inside and outside of the cabin, that all protective equipment is standardized, and that the environment is clean and disinfected to ensure zero contamination.

FIGURE 1

Modularized infection prevention and control channel. Yellow stands for contaminated area and green stands for clean areas. The numbers in the figure stands for cabin number. The fourth cabin was to remove the outermost protective articles, such as protective surface screen, isolation clothing, outermost gloves, and outer boot. The fifth cabin was used to remove eyewear, protective clothing, shoe covers, and inner gloves. The sixth cabin was used for removing hats, N95 masks, and hand disinfection

Patients come from the community to isolation points for hospital treatment. The fear of disease and the unfamiliar environment can produce various anxieties, tensions, and other emotions; the lights are on 24 h per day, which also causes physical and mental discomfort in patients. The first step is to strengthen the emotional interaction between doctors and patients through the establishment of a cabin radio, book corner, music time, and psychological counseling station. The life of patients in the cabin can be enriched and the distance between doctors and patients can be reduced. The second step is to mobilize enthusiastic patients to form volunteer service teams that will help and encourage patients to relieve their tension. The third step is to reserve activity space for patients in the periphery of the medical staff's office. Patients can perform slow health exercises such as walking slowly or Tai Ji to accelerate recovery.

Hundreds of patients live in the same open space, which is not conducive to their privacy, particularly in cabin hospitals reconstructed from gymnasiums. In the subsequent construction of the Donghu Cabin C (1450 beds), the patients were separated into cabins of 20 people. These cabins were separated by partitions, and the top of each bed was also covered, providing privacy and facilitating observation by medical staff.

In brief, modularization of infection control, humanistic care, and privacy protection should be taken to strengthen the management of the cabin hospital.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All authors declare no conflict of interest.