Drive-through screening stations are mobile screening and testing stations for
drivers, designed to allow potential patients of infectious diseases to receive
testing from within their vehicles without the need to exit their vehicles.
These stations are a medical application derived from existing drive-through
ordering systems utilized by fast food restaurants and franchise coffee shops
where customers order from inside their vehicles.
A drive-through
screening in process ⓒ Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital
On the 23rd of February, 2020,
the Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital implemented the world’s
first drive-through COVID19 screening method, with multiple nations
benchmarking this new method of screening for infectious diseases.
As COVID 19 was rapidly spreading within Korea at the
time, there was a strong need for a faster and efficient, but also safe method
of screening. The existing diagnosis method for COVID19 involved potential
patients visiting on foot, gathering in front of negative pressure testing
chambers, causing a high concern of secondary exposure. Meanwhile, long waiting
times and testing times resulted in rising complaints of inconvenience and
uneasiness.
In this time of national crisis, Dr. Kim, Jinyong,
head of the Center for Global Infectious Diseases Control of Incheon Medical Center,
suggested a drive-through method for testing, and Kyungpook National University
Chilgok Hospital rapidly introduced a drive-through screening station and began
operations in accordance with its facility’s conditions.
👇The Korean Drive-through Testing Method, Leading
the Global Standard 👇
- The Drive-through
testing method was first implemented in simulation form at Stanford Hospital
& Clinics in the USA, with a rise in avian flu cases in 2009. However,
Korea’s success case of actual implementation at a national level was the first
of its kind in the world.
- Beginning in
August, 2020, the Ministry of Health and
Welfare (MOHW) led efforts to register the COVID19 drive-through screening
station standard operating model with the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), with the model being verified as a world standard in February,
2022. |
■ The Quick Diagnoses of innovative screening stations, contributing to limiting spread of COVID19
The advantage that drive-through screening stations hold are their ability to cut off exposure threats and test with speed. The risk of exposure or infection is greatly reduced, as test subjects are tested for temperature and samples while remaining in the independent space of their vehicles.
As the COVID19 drive-through tests allowed all testing
procedures including questionnaire completion, doctor diagnosis, and sample
collection, all from within each subject’s vehicle, the test time for each
individual could be reduced to about 5 to 10 minutes. While there had been
risks of cross exposure from patients waiting in front of screening stations,
an addition of phone reservations for treatment led to reduced waiting lines.
The existing COVID19 testing method required internal
disinfection, air ventilation and changing of protective gear for medical
personnel with each test, but the drive-through method allowed the exclusion of
disinfection and ventilation procedures, while medical personnel were now able
to continue testing with only a change of gloves and apron.
The Kyungpook
National University Chilgok Hospital’s own research showed that the
drive-through method increased testing speeds by 20 to 30 times in comparison
to existing testing methods.
■ through Screening, Praised Overseas as a Rapid Solution Model of K-Quarantine.
After the Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital made this first move in groundbreaking infectious disease testing with the drive-through screening stations, the government, regional municipalities, and public medical facilities rapidly followed suit. Drive-through testing quickly spread throughout the nation, with drive-through screening stations being implemented at Yeungnam University Hospital in Daegu, and cities like Sejong and Goyang after two days, on February 26th, 2020.
[Left] Vehicles visiting the drive-through
screening station ⓒ Yeungnam University
Hospital [Right] Drive-through stations in operation ⓒ Sejong
The
Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) and the COVID19 Central Disaster and Safety
Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCHQ) further assisted work in the field by
establishing a drive-through screening
station standard operating model in March, 2020, and distributing it to all
municipalities in the nation. The MOHW,
beginning August 2020, made efforts to have the COVID19 drive-through screening
station standard operation model registered with the ISO. In February of 2022,
the Korea standard operating model of drive-through screening stations was
officially accepted as a worldwide standard.
With international praise and benchmarking cases
following, the Korean method of drive-through screening stations has been
evaluated as a best practice standard for quarantining in the world. You could
call it a global hit that once again placed K-quarantine practices in the
limelight.
The BBC praised the system as a “brand new
drive-through method of COVID testing that rapidly incorporated a wise idea”,
and the CNN spread the success of K-Quarantine practices, mentioning how the
stations “limited contact between potential patients and medical personnel,
with test subjects never exiting their vehicles”.
Der Spiegel, a German news outlet, reported with the
title “Korea’s strategy for COVID19 is resolute transparency”, providing a
detailed report of the procedures followed by multiple Korean municipalities
that were eager to implement drive-through stations for rapid COVID19 testing
Professor Kwon, Ki Tae and co-researchers at the
Division of Infectious Diseases, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital,
also introduced the operation case of Korean drive-through screening stations
in the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS), an international journal of
medicine.
