First, here is the brief summary of the "walk thru" booth, and how we use it. This booth was created from an idea of bio safety cabinet class 3 usually used in bio labs. We made a human sized cabinet; a size of a telephone booth, with transparent walls, for people outside should be able to communicate/see people inside. On the opposite side wall of the cabinet door, a pair of gloves are installed, for the doctor outside to put their hands into the booth. Inside the booth, stethoscope and pen-light are there for the doctor to use in order to examine the patient, and thru the phone that is connected inside-out, they can communicate. Also, UVC lamp is always on and strong negative pressure is operated so that air inside does not contaminate around the booth nearby. Once the patient gets out of the booth, we sterilize and ventilate it for about 10 minutes. We are operating four booths, so the circulation rate is fast. Before the booth was introduced, we were able to get specimens from 8 to 9 people in 8 hours, but now we can manage 70 to 80. If we cover the manpower shortage, then we can exercise more than 100 cases in a day. Time spent on one patient is hard to tell, for there are many patients who want longer consultation through the phone and who have hard time following instruction in collecting sample.
Approximately, it takes 5 to 10 minutes for the consultation and talking, and 1 to 3 minutes of sample collection, and about 15 minutes for the 1st and 2nd sterilization/ventilation after the patient leaves.