Introduction
Our department was created in 1998 by Dr. Tsao, who was also the first head of the department. The hospital felt a quarantine zone was needed and hence it created an “infectious disease ward” at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan in 2003.
Currently, our department is run by a team which includes 4 physicians and is assisted by 1 resident. There are also 6 specially trained “infection control” nurses and a laboratory technician assisting. In addition, there are 4 nurses responsible for case management related to HIV and tuberculosis.
Overview of Services Provided
1) In Hospital Care:
We provide care for patients with infectious diseases such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, skin and soft tissue infection, meningitis, and infective endocarditis. If the cause of a fever is unclear, we help to determine it. The hospital has specially designed “negative pressure rooms” which are ventilated directly to the exterior of the building. These are used when treating patients with diseases transmitted by air such as tuberculosis, influenza, and measles.
2) Outpatient Care:
We provide outpatient care from Monday to Friday for patients referred to or discharged by us. We follow patients with a variety of diseases such as: upper airway infection, general fever, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, cellulitis, urinary tract infection, and infectious diarrhea. Our team have plenty of experience and are experts in dealing with these specific diseases.
3) Specialized Consulting Related to Infectious Disease:
Various departments will consult our team to find specific information related to infectious diseases or to obtain a diagnosis if they are having difficulty determining it themselves. They may also get advice from us regarding antibiotic and other treatment strategies.
4) Infection Control (Epidemics):
In case of an outbreak of an emerging infectious disease, such as influenza, dengue fever or measles, or a “superbug” (i.e. a disease resistant to antibiotic treatment), we create a strategy to prevent the further spread of the disease. We do ongoing monitoring of the progress of the epidemic, keeping track of where and how it spreads and attempt to stop or control it.
We also monitor and advise physicians to be more judicious in their use of antibiotics, such as only using them when necessary, or using specific antibiotics to treat specific infections rather than broad spectrum antibiotics for everything.
5) Education (Medical students and Residents):
We do medical training in 3 areas:
- Medical students during their clinical training when the focus is on infectious diseases.
- A 2 year program where post graduate residents come to our department to take care of patients directly.
- A 2 year residence program of internal medicine, after which we provide a further 2 years of training to become an infectious disease specialist physician.
6) Research:
We have a study program which takes advantage of our microbiological molecular laboratory to analyze and identify drug resistant genes in bacteria.
We also have studies focusing on HIV and other STDs to discover better treatment strategies.
Our department also cooperates with other hospitals and medical schools doing ongoing research in the above areas.
Prospective
In all that we do, we hope to improve and ensure high quality patient care, and to effectively and efficiently run infection control measures.
We also hope, under our training programs, to assist new physicians to become experienced and effective in clinical care.
Finally, we hope our research will be widely published in order to share insightful information related to our field.