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letter
. 2020 Apr 23:1–2. doi: 10.1017/ice.2020.163

Table 1.

Pandemic-Specific Infection Prevention and Control Strategies, Stratified by Level

Hospital Ward/Location Individual
  • Restricted access into IMH, only 1 entrance

  • 3 visitor screening centers have been set up

  • Visitors must register and state the purpose of their visit and location of visit

  • Temperature screening of all visitors plus travel history

  • Restrictions on the number of visitors: only 1 visitor at a time per inpatient; only 1 accompanying person per outpatient

  • Televisitation services for visitors

  • Teleconsultation for medical consultations in nursing homes

  • Home delivery of prescriptions

  • Isolation ward for potential infectious cases (eg, respiratory symptoms)

  • Enhanced pneumonia surveillance

  • Modular system in the blocks; no cross-block movement; split-mode operations

  • No interward mixing

  • Unidirectional flow in the outpatient clinic

  • Reduction of outpatient appointments to lengthen the gap between follow-up appointments where possible

  • Negative pressure rooms (n=28)


ECT service
  • Segregation of inpatients and outpatients receiving service; service provision is conducted by blocks; enhanced terminal cleaning after each use



X-ray services
  • Provision of services by block



Dental services
  • Suspended service

Patients
  • Temperature surveillance of inpatients twice daily

  • Patients hands are sanitized every 2 h in the wards

  • Personal hygiene education for inpatients

  • Patient vaccination program (flu and pneumococcal)

  • Suspension of group activities



Staff
  • Staff wear surgical masks in the wards

  • Personal portable hand sanitizer given to all staff, changed every 6 mo

  • Staff temperature screening twice daily

  • Travel and leave restrictions

  • Staff vaccination program (flu, MMR, hepatitis)

  • All nonessential training has been suspended

  • Essential training, ie, maintenance of competency (eg, BCLS) continues

  • Personal protective equipment training and audits

  • Electronic tracking of staff movement to facilitate contact tracing

  • Monitoring of staff temperature, travel, and medical certificates using a national-level staff surveillance system



Visitors
  • Suspension of all volunteer activities

  • All visitors to wards must wear masks

Note. IMH, Singapore Institute for Mental Health; ECT, electroconvulsive therapy; MMR, measles, mumps, rubella vaccine; BCLS, basic cardiac life support.