Prompt and unavoidable requalification of ordinary hospital wards into a centralized department characterized by high-intensity treatment due to COVID-19 epidemic: the experience of Romano di Lombardia Hospital

• Main Authors: Norberto Ceserani, Enrico Motterlini, Michele Albergati, Fulvio Barbieri, Marco Valcarenghi, Alessia Carbone, Giovanni Bergonzi, Pasquale Di Biase, Antonino Chiarello, Maria Colpani, Francesca Moretti, Anna Magnani, Osvaldo Buscaya, Pierluigi Pagnoni, Marco Trogu, Roberto Bosco, Loretta Ruggiero, Alessandro Cirelli, Luigi Ciardo, Katia Cerea, Michele Petracca, Stefano Mangiarotti, Laura Sangiovanni, Gastone Piacentini, Marco Berti, Angelino Gatti, Gabriele Testa, Giuseppe Sala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2021-01-01
• Series: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives
• Subjects: covid-19; reorganization; emergency; resilience
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20009666.2020.1825185
• ISSN: 2000-9666

The Coronavirus epidemic quickly spread in Italy from China. In particular, it affected Bergamo province where Romano di Lombardia hospital is situated. Therefore, this hospital felt the urgency to requalify its activity in no time. It transformed itself into a unique centralized subintensive department to treat COVID-19 patients. The factors that made it possible to adequately face the stress due to patients’ hospitalization were human resources and innovative elements to provide oxygen therapy. It is to underline that the logistic and methodological reality was not planned to cope with this emergency.