Movable hospital making the rounds in battle against virus
A movable laboratory that can process a maximum of 60,000 nucleic test results daily is now part of a COVID-19 temporary hospital.
The temporary hospital launched by Shanghai East Hospital in Pudong was used on the front line in the fight against the virus in Wuhan. Medical staff drove trucks to set up the makeshift hospital with 25 tents last year.
At the base of the tent hospital, three key sections were added — a laboratory, gas-filled membrane wards with negative air pressure and a command center with the most advanced intelligent hospital management system.
“It's a digital, movable, modular and growing hospital that can be transported, installed and evacuated quickly," said Liu Zhongmin, president of Shanghai East Hospital. "It can be connected to developing technologies and expanded to accommodate more patients if necessary.”
The movable hospital is equipped with more than 40 beds, two operation rooms, surgery preparation rooms and intensive care units, and is divided into more than 20 different functional areas.
Medical staff in a gas-filled membrane ward with negative air pressure.
The new membrane wards were jointly developed by Tongji University and Shanghai East Hospital in line with the latest requirements for quarantine wards.
"It's an updated version of our original tent hospital to prevent the virus from spreading and protect medical staff and the public," Liu said. "When there are a large number of patients, the negative air-pressure wards with 200 beds can be installed within five days. It can be transported on an airplane and set up in places where hospitals are overflowing with patients."
There's also a state-of-the-art movable laboratory that can be transported by truck and put into use within 60 minutes.
“It's the third movable lab we have developed," said Yin Ye, chief executive officer of the Beijing Genomics Institute, one of the co-developers. "The previous two were sent to Heilongjiang Province for the recent outbreak there. The lab can be quickly transported by truck to any destination and carry out nucleic acid tests in short order, which is especially useful for rural areas with poor medical capabilities."
The truck with the movable lab.
The lab can do a maximum of 60,000 samples for nucleic acid test per day.
The intelligent hospital management system is the heart of the hospital, with robotics, information, call, long-distance conference and consultation and patient management systems, as well as Internet of Things technology that can locate medical staff, patients, robots and equipment and monitor patients' conditions. Whenever a patient leaves a quarantine area, has abnormal vital signs or equipment is moved from a designated area, an alert is issued.
The intelligent hospital management system.
Robots play a big role, as they can monitor patients' vital signs and perform long-distance consultations to reduce unnecessary risk exposure of the medical staff. Disinfection robots are highly efficient and thorough, and transportation robots move goods and equipment to reduce the risk of infection for logistics and medical staff.
“The hospital is a solution to infectious disease prevention and control that can be copied and used all over the nation,” Liu said.
An intensive care unit at the tent hospital.
