COVID-19 pre-procedural testing strategy and early outcomes at a large tertiary care children's hospital.
Pediatr Surg Int
; 37(7): 871-880, 2021 Jul.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1130763
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
With the emergence of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, institutions were tasked with developing individualized pre-procedural testing strategies that allowed for re-initiation of elective procedures within national and state guidelines. This report describes the experience of a single US children's hospital (Children's Wisconsin, CW) in developing a universal pre-procedural COVID-19 testing protocol and reports early outcomes.METHODS:
The CW pre-procedural COVID-19 response began with the creation of a multi-disciplinary taskforce that sought to develop a strategy for universal pre-procedural COVID-19 testing which (1) maximized patient safety, (2) prevented in-hospital viral transmission, (3) conserved resources, and (4) allowed for resumption of procedural care within institutional capacity.RESULTS:
Of 11,209 general anesthetics performed at CW from March 16, 2020 to October 31, 2020, 11,150 patients (99.5%) underwent pre-procedural COVID-19 testing. Overall, 1.4% of pre-procedural patients tested positive for COVID-19. By June 2020, CW was operating at near-normal procedural volume and there were no documented cases of in-hospital viral transmission. Only 0.5% of procedures were performed under augmented COVID-19 precautions (negative pressure environment and highest-level personal protective equipment).CONCLUSION:
CW successfully developed a multi-disciplinary pre-procedural COVID-19 testing protocol that enabled resumption of near-normal procedural volume within three months while limiting in-hospital viral transmission and resource use.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19 Testing
/
COVID-19
/
Hospitals, Pediatric
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
Limits:
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Pediatr Surg Int
Journal subject:
Pediatrics
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00383-021-04878-2
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