KMID : 1812620220020010131
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HIRA Research 2022 Volume.2 No. 1 p.131 ~ p.137
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Physician¡¯s Role in Community Treatment Center
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Hwang Kun
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Abstract
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The Republic of Korea¡¯s government created community treatment centers (CTCs) to isolate and monitor patients with mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms. Since CTCs offer appropriate clinical triaging and daily monitoring for patients, they are a safe alternative to medical institutions for asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients. The aim of this paper is to describe the role of physicians working at CTCs. I worked as a physician at a CTC that re-opened for 24 days in January 2022 as part of a team of three physicians. We developed and revised a manual for the doctors who would take over our work. This paper includes part of the manual and my diary made at that time. A physician at a CTC performs the following tasks: (1) prescribing oral drugs to symptomatic patients, (2) confirming patients¡¯ discharge, (3) giving orders to admitting patients and filling out the electronic medical record, (4) confirming the reports of chest X-ray films taken the previous day, (5) transferring severe cases, (6) confirming patients¡¯ admission, and (7) collecting samples from the nose and throat for polymerase chain reaction testing. Physicians play an important role at CTCs. It is thought that a 2- or 3-week rotation of physicians is too frequent. A 1-week quarantine period at CTCs seems to be too short because the mean period of viral shedding is 23.8¡¾8.7 days (range, 8-49 days). It has been a privilege for me to work as a physician at a CTC.
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KEYWORD
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COVID-19, Physician¡¯s role, Hospitals, Isolation, Skilled nursing facilities
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