Reorganising the emergency department to manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

Background: The COVID-19 disease outbreak that first surfaced in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has taken the world by storm and ravaged almost every country in the world. Emergency departments (ED) in hospitals are on the frontlines, serving an essential function in identifying these patients, isolating them early whilst providing urgent medical care. This outbreak has reinforced the role of Emergency Medicine in public health.

Emergency department 'outbreak rostering' to meet challenges of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak has posed unique challenges to the emergency department rostering. Additional infection control, the possibility of quarantine of staff and minimising contact among staff have significant impact on the work of doctors in the emergency department. Infection of a single healthcare worker may require quarantine of close contacts at work.

Implications for public access defibrillation placement by non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurrence in Singapore.

Introduction: The American Heart Association recommends automated external defibrillator placement in public areas with a high probability (>1) of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurring in 5 years. We aimed to determine the incidence rate of OHCA for different location categories in Singapore.

Methods: Cardiac arrest incidence was obtained from a national registry.