Coronavirus: A Look Inside RUSH University Medicine's ‘Forward Triage Area'

RUSH University Medicine’s Forward Triage Area is a converted Ambulance Bay designed to minimize contact between potential Coronavirus patients and other hospital patients and staff.

Patients identified as possibly suffering from COVID-19 will be given masks and asked to wait in chairs spaced 6 feet apart for social distancing and asked a series of questions about their travel and exposure. They then will be taken into one of two tents for treatment and evaluation.

Everything inside the tent can be sterilized. Medical personnel will wear gloves, gowns, face shields and masks—No skin will be exposed

Patients will be evaluated for their symptoms. The most serious patients will be admitted into one of Rush's negative pressure rooms. Other patients with less severe symptoms, could even be evaluated and then discharged to their own homes to quarantine themselves and recover there.