Introduction During the early days of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Singapore, Tan Tock Seng Hospital implemented an enhanced pneumonia surveillance (EPS) programme enrolling all patients who were admitted from the Emergency Department (ED) with a diagnosis of pneumonia but not meeting the prevalent COVID-19 suspect case definition. Hypothesis/Gap statement There is a paucity of data supporting the implementation of such a programme. Aims To compare and contrast our hospital-resource utilization of an EPS programme for COVID-19 infection detection with a suitable comparison group. Methodology We enrolled all patients admitted under the EPS programme from TTSH’s ED from 7 February 2020 (date of EPS implementation) to 20 March 2020 (date of study ethics application) inclusive. We designated a comparison cohort over a similar duration the preceding year. Relevant demographic and clinical data were extracted from the electronic medical records. Results There was a 3.2 times higher incidence of patients with an admitting diagnosis of pneumonia from the ED in the EPS cohort compared to the comparison cohort ( P <0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the median length of stay of 7 days ( P =0.160). Within the EPS cohort, stroke and fluid overload occur more frequently as alternative primary diagnoses. Conclusions Our study successfully evaluated our hospital-resource utilization demanded by our EPS programme in relation to an appropriate comparison group. This helps to inform strategic use of hospital resources to meet the needs of both COVID-19 related services and essential ‘peace-time’ healthcare services concurrently.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, pneumonia surveillance, hospital-resource utilization, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, Pneumonia, stroke, Diagnosis, Cohort, Surveillance, COVID-19 infection, implementation, Patient, Singapore, incidence, electronic medical records, Emergency, paucity of data, no significant difference, Clinical data, diagnoses, help, Department, prevalent, fluid overload, Result, enrolled, evaluated, occur, healthcare service, hospital resource, the median, 【제목키워드】 Pneumonia, Surveillance, Admission,