A Novel Approach for a Novel Pathogen: Using a Home Assessment Team to Evaluate Patients for COVID-19

Chloe Bryson-Cahn; Jeffrey Duchin; Vanessa A Makarewicz; Meagan Kay; Krista Rietberg; Nathanael Napolitano; Carole Kamangu; Timothy H Dellit; John B Lynch

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa256

A Novel Approach for a Novel Pathogen: Using a Home Assessment Team to Evaluate Patients for COVID-19

Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Nov 19;71(16):2211-2214. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa256.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.
² Infection Prevention and Control, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
³ Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Immunization, Prevention Division, Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Abstract

Thousands of people in the United States have required testing for SARS-CoV-2. Evaluation for a special pathogen is resource intensive. We report an innovative approach to home assessment that, in collaboration with public health, enables safe evaluation and specimen collection outside the healthcare setting, avoiding unnecessary exposures and resource utilization.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; home assessment; novel coronavirus.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / diagnosis*
COVID-19 / prevention & control
Clinical Laboratory Techniques
House Calls*
Humans
Patient Care Team*
Public Health / methods*
SARS-CoV-2
Specimen Handling / methods*
Technology Assessment, Biomedical / methods
United States