On Monday, March 30, 2020, Rockpointe and the Potomac Center for Medical Center, in collaboration with MedChi, published an on-demand CME/CPE/CNE accredited web course entitled, “COVID-19 in the Ambulatory Care Setting: A Practical Guide for the Multidisciplinary Team.” The course, designed to be a practical guide for clinicians in outpatient facilities, will prepare healthcare workers who work in an ambulatory-care setting properly manage patient who present to their outpatient facility with COVID-19 symptoms.
The course is moderated by Terry Ann Glauser, MD, MPH, and includes panelists Anthony D. Harris, MD, MPH, a professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland and Karen Hoffman, RN, MS, CIC, FSHEA, FAPIC, an infection prevention consultant and clinical instructor at the University of North Carolina.
Topics covered in the webcourse include: what to do about patient isolation in the office; what specimens to obtain, how to obtain them, and where to send them to be tested; how and to whom a potential case should be reported; how to decide on patient disposition; and how to clean and disinfect after the patient leaves the office.
One topic that may be of interest to many providers is how to maintain your PPE equipment, who needs to use masks, and how to determine which forms of PPE to use. Another important topic covered is the importance of reminding patients and others of respiratory etiquette and how to do that.
Tips on how to perform telephonic triages is included, which can help to prevent emergency rooms, ambulatory offices, and other healthcare facilities from being overwhelmed by patients who do not need to be seen (as they are not exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms). The course even includes a sample telephone triage flow.
This program is designed to address Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and National Academy of Medicine (NAM) competencies, including delivering patient-centered care and practicing evidence-based medicine. At its conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Develop protocols that address the situation of a patient with suspected COVID-19 in the ambulatory-care setting, including a private office, clinic, or urgent-care facility.
- Indicate which specimens to obtain from a patient with suspected COVID-19 and send those samples to a laboratory capable of testing them.
- Determine an appropriate disposition for a patient suspected of having COVID-19.
- Describe measures needed to clean and disinfect the office after a patient suspected of having COVID-19 departs.
To begin the course, click here. A link to the question and answer session from the March 20, 2020, live webinar can be found here. Rockpointe has also created a helpful patient resource handout, which can be used in your practices and found here.