Update – De-isolation process for suspected COVID-19 patients

June 18, 2020

Dear Medical, Nursing and Midwifery Staff,

Thank you again for your continued support as we move towards a unit-led COVID-19 de-isolation process.

A reminder that all support resources for this process including instructional videos, the De-isolation Guideline and the EMR Quick Reference Guide are available on this site in Clinical Guidelines/COVID-19 Patient Management.

With targeted training having commenced with General Medicine, from Monday of this week the process has been to continue to follow the De-isolation Guideline, then the steps below. There is no change to this process for the coming week.

 

GENERAL MEDICINE UNIT ONLY – for suspected COVID-19 patients under consideration for de-isolation

  1.  In hours (8am – 4pm, Monday-Friday) please call Switchboard on 8345 6666 to contact the:
    • General Internal Medicine (GIM) Senior Medical Registrar at Sunshine Hospital for Sunshine-based GIM inpatients
    • General Internal Medicine (GIM) Senior Medical Registrar at Footscray Hospital for Footscray-based GIM inpatients

2.   For all other times, please follow the steps below

 

FOR ALL OTHER suspected COVID-19 patients under consideration for de-isolation 

  1. In hours (8am – 4pm, Monday-Friday and 9.30am – 5.30pm Saturday-Sunday) please call the De-isolation HMO via Switchboard on 8345 6666
  2. For all other times, if there is an urgent requirement, please contact the AHA via Switchboard for further guidance.

 

Before contacting the De-isolation HMO or GIM Senior Registrar it is essential that all medical staff continue to thoroughly check for Pathology results in the EMR, as some patients may be awaiting outstanding test results. For this reason, all staff are asked to please check both the results review and the orders page in the EMR.

In addition staff should be able to advise the De-isolation HMO or GIM Senior Registrar:

  1. Risk status of patient (High/Low)
  2. Day of illness that COVID-19 test(s) were taken
  3. Whether Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGP) are currently required

This memorandum  has been sent to all medical, nursing and midwifery staff, and the senior leadership group. Please distribute to your teams if relevant.

Thank you for continuing to support the delivery of Best Care.

Paul Eleftheriou & Shane Crowe