"Night Calls for Home Treatment Patients Mainly from Infant Caregivers... Few Outpatient Visits"

Seoul Medical Center Treats a Total of 20,400 COVID-19 Patients
Oral Antiviral Prescriptions Available at Outpatient Clinic

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] "There are occasional calls during nighttime hours, mostly from guardians of young children who are anxious."

The medical staff at Seoul Medical Center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, who are in charge of treating COVID-19 patients under home care, said during a press tour on the 13th, "There are more people than expected who feel anxious during home treatment for COVID-19," adding, "Most of the nighttime calls come from guardians of young children who are anxious. If they want to see a doctor, we connect them, and if necessary, we guide them to visit the emergency room."

At the COVID-19 home treatment management control room set up at the main building of Seoul Medical Center, medical staff were busy checking the health status of home treatment patients in real time. A total of 15 nurses and 13 doctors work in the Seoul Medical Center home treatment management control room, operating in a 24-hour three-shift system. At the time reporters visited, four nurses and one doctor were monitoring the health status of home patients.

Seoul Medical Center has an outpatient clinic outside the main building. The container, measuring 9 meters wide and 3 meters long, serves as an outpatient clinic where COVID-19 home treatment patients can meet medical staff directly for consultations. Behind the center is an examination room equipped with X-ray equipment. Kim Seok-yeon, Deputy Director of Medical Affairs at Seoul Medical Center, explained, "All processes from registration, examination, consultation, to prescription are conducted here," adding, "The passageway through which patients move is under negative pressure, so air does not flow toward the medical staff, eliminating infection concerns."

Home treatment patients can receive consultations while wearing masks and separated by transparent plastic from the medical staff seated inside the counter. The center operates by appointment, allowing one patient every 30 minutes. Medical staff noted that relatively few patients visit the center because most home treatment patients are younger and have fewer underlying conditions.

Deputy Director Kim said, "The center's utilization rate is not high," adding, "Young and healthy COVID-19 confirmed patients have non-face-to-face consultations available, so they don't feel the need to bother calling an ambulance and undergoing face-to-face consultations while wearing protective suits and being observed by others."

Starting from the 14th, Pfizer's oral COVID-19 treatment, Paxlovid, will be available at this center. Paxlovid must be administered within five days of symptom onset to be effective, so rapid delivery of the medication is crucial.

When asked if there might be delays in delivery due to a surge in demand once oral treatment prescriptions begin, Song Eun-cheol, Director of Infectious Disease Management at Seoul City, said, "Since the proportion of home treatment patients aged 65 and older, who are eligible for oral treatment, is low, we do not expect local governments to face difficulties in delivery capacity for the time being."

Currently, there are six COVID-19 outpatient clinics in Seoul. In preparation for a surge in confirmed cases and home treatment patients due to the spread of the Omicron variant, Seoul plans to increase the number of centers by about ten more.

On the same day, Seoul Medical Center also revealed its emergency medical center, which COVID-19 home treatment patients can visit in urgent situations such as surgery or childbirth. Recently, a COVID-19 positive mother gave birth inside an ambulance and received postpartum care at this center. There were also patients requiring surgery and treatment due to lacerations or acute abdominal pain.

Deputy Director Kim said, "We predicted that 3% of 10,000 home treatment patients would develop emergency conditions, which was about 10 patients per day," adding, "This might be because home treatment patients tend to be relatively young and have fewer underlying diseases."

However, during the peak period when COVID-19 cases surged, all 12 beds in the center?including two negative pressure beds and ten severe care beds?were fully occupied. Ham Eun-mi, Head of Emergency Medicine at Seoul Medical Center, explained, "Patients mainly visit the center due to worsening shortness of breath, chest pain, or intensified coughing," adding, "Many have pneumonia, and in such cases, they are admitted to isolation wards."

Song Kwan-young, Director of Seoul Medical Center, said, "Seoul Medical Center has treated the largest number of COVID-19 patients nationwide, totaling over 24,000," adding, "The COVID-19 crisis has lasted two years, and our staff are quite exhausted."

Director Song also emphasized, "No one can predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will end," adding, "As a public medical institution, we will continue to discuss with the government and Seoul City to maintain and manage our services continuously. No matter how difficult it gets, we will fight and overcome COVID-19 to the very end."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.