In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread among the Belgian territory Our university hospital was confronted to the very need of specific reorganizations guided by the implementation of the Hospital Emergency Plan This article aims to describe the experience of the University Hospital of Liege (CHU Liege) during the COVID-19 outbreak and demonstrates the efficiency of advanced triage centers to regulate hospital admissions from the emergency department (ED) METHODS: since the beginning of March 2020, the CHU of Liege has implemented specific advanced triage centers to manage patients with SARS-CoV-2 suspected symptoms The first center was organized inside the hospital but the need of outside structures led to the creation of two centers by the end of March From March 2 to May 3, data from the different visits at the COVID-19 centers were collected (numbers of admissions, rationale for coming, work up and outcome) RESULTS: during the study period, 3,094 patients were admitted to the specific COVID-19 centers of the CHU Liege This represents 3,431 visits among which 337 were classified as readmission visits The sensitivity and specificity of the triage centers to determine the need for hospitalization were, respectively, estimated at 87,9 % and 93,4 % CONCLUSION: our experience tends to demonstrate the role of specific COVID-19 triage centers located very close to the EDs aimed at managing COVID-19 suspected patients in order to actually determine their need for subsequent hospitalization
[Management of emergency department inflows during the COVID-19 outbreak in the CHU of Liege : efficiency of an advanced triage center]