Over the course of these past several weeks, our area system and hospitals (Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center-Montlake, UW Medical Center-Northwest, Valley Medical Center, UW Neighborhood Clinics and Airlift Northwest) have been crafting a set of rapidly evolving protocols to combat the spread of COVID-19, and develop best practices to care for our COVID-19 patients.

Since the outbreak began, our colleagues, locally and nationally, have been reaching out to us for assistance as they start to see cases. We hope that by sharing our work, we can assist your teams and facilities to prepare and move more quickly.

Though the protocols are frequently being revised as we learn more, there are several ways to ready your Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units for these patients.

These include: creative approaches to staff training, improving the physical space for isolation capacity, equipment to procure/inventory, and systems for providing patient care to minimize staff exposure.

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