Practical protocols for managing patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) in the emergency department

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in late 2019 and grew rapidly into a pandemic. As of the writing of this monograph, there are over 100 million confirmed cases worldwide and 2.3 million deaths.1 New York City, with over 630,000 COVID-19-positive patients and over 27,000 deaths, became the infection epicenter in the United States. The Mount Sinai Health System, with 8 hospitals spread across New York City and Long Island, has been on the forefront of the pandemic. This compendium summarizes the lessons learned through interdisciplinary collaborations to meet the varied challenges created by the explosive appearance of the infection in our community, and will be updated continuously as new research and best practices emerge. It is our hope is that the collaborations and lessons learned that went into creating these guidelines and protocols can serve as a useful template for other systems to adapt to their fight against COVID-19.