What to do in an oncology department to face the new COVID-19 era challenges?

Italy was the first European country to be hit by COVID-19 pandemic As a consequence, Italian oncologists had to guarantee essential treatments although minimizing exposure to the virus, and accidental infection, of patients and healthcare professionals As Department of Medical Oncology of the University Hospital of Udine, in this short report, we describe the measures that we have taken, and gradually updated, since February 26, 2020 All accesses to our Oncology facilities are currently regulated by entrance checkpoints where patients are screened for infections following dedicated algorithms Up to date, after 6 weeks of systematic execution of swabs no physician, nurse or other individual of the staff has been found positive to COVID-19 Only one patient admitted for therapy has been identified as COVID-19 positive The aim of our work is to propose a model, made up of a set of operative procedures, that may be adopted by all the oncologists that daily struggle to guarantee safety and care in Oncology during this COVID-19 emergency