Table 5. Rating scale and correlation of difficulty and effectiveness of infection control measures (ICM) implemented*.
| Response to the SARS outbreak | Difficulty |
Effectiveness |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median | IQR | Median | IQR | Correlation | p value | |
| Basic ICM | ||||||
| Entrance body temperature screen | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | –0.061 | 0.55 |
| Visitors restriction | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | –0.309 | 0.002 |
| Quarantine of fever patients outside of EDs | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | –0.283 | 0.005 |
| Institution of isolation room at ED | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | –0.226 | 0.026 |
| Institution of fever screening station | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | –0.128 | 0.214 |
| Additional ICM | ||||||
| Institution of fever triage ward | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | –0.210 | 0.042 |
| Restriction of fever patient admission | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | –0.283 | 0.005 |
| SARS screening team | 4 | 2.25 | 4 | 3 | –0.408 | 0.000 |
| Restriction of transfer in | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | –0.269 | 0.010 |
| Suspected cases transfer out | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | –0.210 | 0.040 |
| Closure of ED | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | –0.153 | 0.140 |
*SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; IQR, interquartile range; ED, emergency department.