Management Strategies to Control the COVID-19 Crisis in Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Tehran, Iran

The gap in knowledge about the cause, modes of transmission, treatment, and high mortality has increased speculation about COVID-19, further confusing health policymakers and therapists. In addition to the unknown nature of the disease, issues such as high virus transmission rate and lack of facilities such as hospital beds, physician-nurse-to-bed ratio, equipment and care facilities such as personal protective equipment and ventilators, and high elderly populations have posed major challenges for health systems and policymakers. Proper crisis response strategies, including emerging diseases, have a significant impact on hospital readiness and success. In this regard, the Ministry of Health of Iran immediately announced several hospitals in Tehran and other cities as referral hospitals for the admission of COVID-19 patients. One of these hospitals is Masih Daneshvari Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Diseases Hospital in Tehran, which immediately held an emergency meeting. It was announced that the hospital will enter a phase of full preparation for the reception of COVID-19 patients from now. In the first step, all wards of the hospital were evacuated and 301 beds were considered for the admission of suspected patients with COVID-19. Since the characteristics and severity of this disease are unknown and the methods of dealing with it have not been experienced so far, so how to prepare the hospital to deal with it is one of the main challenges. The purpose of this brief report is to provide the experience of Masih Daneshvari Hospital on how to manage, prepare and deal with the epidemic of the COVID-19.