INITIATE STAFF PREPARATIONS
Fit testing for airborne precautions should be up to date within the last month for all staff, including radiology, maintenance, housekeeping, and other ancillary staff. Every physician and nurse should attest to watching the proper donning/doffing technique recommended by the CDC in the links below, and in-person training should be considered.
Staff should update their own home personal safety plans, including back up child care plans, and stocking house supplies so that when work gets busy, their own home plans and supplies are flush and they can concentrate on work.
COMMUNICATION
Incident Command structure to be followed with centralized communication, messaging, and task delegation:
- Identify a liaison to communicate regularly with local Dept of Health.
- Identify a liaison for communications with the Media
- Identify a COVID-19 hospitalist lead for admissions that are not to the ICU, and an intensivist lead for those in the ICU.
- Identify outreach leads for EMS, homeless/shelter community, SNFs, and jail if your hospital receives these patients.
- Consider creation of a centralized, regional patient triage system to move patients between hospitals to offload hospitals at high capacity.
RESOURCES
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For AAMC clinical guidance repository with protocols from multiple institutions and alignment summaries: https://www.aamc.org/coronavirus-covid-19-clinical-guidance-repository#alignment.
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NIH Treatment Guidelines: https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/.
- For COVID-19 EMS resources, including video updates, see EMS Online Infectious Disease Safety Information web page.
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PPE Video for Pre-training and “Just in Time” Review
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Watching the video does NOT qualify as appropriate refresher training. We recommend that you review the pre-training video before your training session.
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CDC Website for Current Literature
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National Academy of Medicine: Duty to Plan: Health Care, Crisis Standards of Care, and Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 outline important concepts in health care systems preparedness.
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Hick, J. L., D. Hanfling, M. K. Wynia, and A. T. Pavia. 2020. Duty to Plan: Health Care, Crisis Standards of Care, and Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. NAM Perspectives. Discussion paper. National Academy of Medicine. Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.31478/202003b
UW Medicine COVID-19 Resource Site
See UW Medicine COVID-19 Resource Site for more screening and testing algorithms, policy statements, and additional links.
DISCLAIMER
This site is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. All information is meant for use by healthcare workers and not the general public. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately. No physician-patient relationship is created by this web site or its use. Neither the University nor its employees, nor any contributor to this web site, makes any representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided herein or to its use.
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