Design and Implementation of a Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Unit

Brandon P Verdoorn; Mairead M Bartley; Lori J Baumbach; Anupam Chandra; Kyle M McKenzie; Maria Mendoza De la Garza; Daniel E Sanchez Pellecer; Tina C Small; Gregory J Hanson

doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2021.02.001

Design and Implementation of a Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Unit

J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2021 May;22(5):971-973.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2021.02.001. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Authors

Brandon P Verdoorn¹, Mairead M Bartley², Lori J Baumbach², Anupam Chandra³, Kyle M McKenzie², Maria Mendoza De la Garza³, Daniel E Sanchez Pellecer², Tina C Small², Gregory J Hanson²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Community Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. Electronic address: verdoorn.brandon@mayo.edu.
² Division of Community Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
³ Division of Community Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has challenged the health care system's capacity to care for acutely ill patients. In a collaborative partnership between a health system and a skilled nursing facility (SNF), we developed and implemented an SNF COVID-19 unit to allow expedited hospital discharge of COVID-positive older adults who are clinically improving, and to provide an alternative to hospitalization for those who require SNF care but do not require or necessarily desire aggressive disease-modifying interventions.

Keywords: COVID unit; COVID-19; SNF; coronavirus; long-term care facility; skilled nursing facility.

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19*
Hospitalization
Humans
Patient Discharge
SARS-CoV-2
Skilled Nursing Facilities*