Preparedness of health facilities to serve Covid-19 patients: What can be learned from R.A.A. Soewondo Hospital, district of Pati, Indonesia

Covid-19 or SARS-COV2 became a pandemic since discovering the covid-19 case in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Now the pandemic has hit almost 200 countries. The government of Indonesia enacted covid-19 as a national disaster after discovering the covid-19 case in early March 2020. The number of sufferers, the number who recovered, and the number who died occur fluctuate, but the tendency is to increase. Health service facilities are the gatekeeper that serves covid-19 patients. As referral services from primary healthcare, the hospitals face many problems due to unpreparedness to face a pandemic. This research used a qualitative method by taking a case study in public hospital R.A.A Soewondo in the district of Pati, Indonesia. The data was collected from May until August 2020 by conducting in-depth interviews with hospital managers and staff related to handling covid-19 patients. The data was analyzed using the content analysis method. The handling of covid-19 patients is still constrained by limited facilities (especially isolation rooms), medical equipment (ventilator, personal protective equipment), and hospitals’ ability to quickly adapt to external changes due to pandemics. Zoning arrangements and covid-19 patient pathways have been carried out.