A Path to New Normal of Nuclear Medicine Facilities: Considerations for Reopening

Document Type : Letter to the editor

Authors

1 Department of Infectious Diseases, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

2 Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

3 Persian Gulf Nuclear Medicine Research Center, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

Abstract

The stormy clouds of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak caused a rapidly spreading epidemic still hanging over the sphere. Any steps to transition toward a new normal should be guided by health authorities, together with economic and societal considerations. There are various items mainly falling into three classifications, including patient worry, clinical demand, and economic recession. Social distancing, lay-offs, and decreased number of patients with health insurance may lead to a prolonged period to retrieve normalcy. To return to a new normal, an individualized management model should be developed for each laboratory based on staff, instruments, services, crowding, physical space, hospital base unit, or outpatient clinic. Continuous training of different occupational staffs is among the key parameters in maintaining this readiness. The proposed response model should have internal and systemic integrity as well as coherence among the included items in two intra- and inter-unit management categories, namely thinking globally and acting locally.

Keywords

References

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Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology
Volume 9, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 80-85

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