UPDATE: De-isolation process for suspected COVID-19 patients

June 25, 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 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.

Targeted training has now been undertaken with Acute Aged Care and General Medicine so from Monday 29 June please continue to follow the De-isolation Guideline, then the steps below. N.B. The work-hours for the ‘centralised’ De-isolation HMO have changed. 

 

ACUTE AGED CARE PATIENTS – 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:

a.  AAC1 Registrar at Sunshine Hospital for Sunshine-based Acute Aged Care inpatients

b.  AAC5 Registrar at Footscray Hospital for Footscray-based Acute Aged Care inpatients

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

 

GENERAL MEDICINE UNIT – 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:

a. General Internal Medicine (GIM) Senior Medical Registrar at Sunshine Hospital for Sunshine-based GIM inpatients

b. General Internal Medicine (GIM) Senior Medical Registrar at Footscray Hospital for Footscray-based GIM inpatients

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

 

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

    1. In hours (8am-4.30pm, Monday-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 Acute Aged Care Registrar, GIM Senior Registrar or De-isolation HMO 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 Acute Aged Care Registrar, GIM Senior Registrar or De-isolation HMO:

  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