Infection control and epidemiology leaders at Nebraska Medicine have revised the medical center’s COVID-19 testing recommendations for providers. The guidance is located here but is summarized below.
- Test supplies are running low and we must conserve testing to preserve the ability to test those who most need it
- Only those where knowledge of the results is essential to patient care or public health should be tested
- There is no longer a need to call Infection Control to discuss testing
- Testing guidance is available online and is briefly summarized below, and should be adhered to or we may overwhelm our laboratory capacity and thus lose the ability to test those who are most in need
- Test persons with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection who meet the following criteria:
- Persons being admitted to the hospital
- Persons specifically directed to be tested by Employee Health )e.g., a potentially infected health care provider)
- May consider testing high-risk ambulatory patients
- This would generally include the elderly (>65 years), those with significant comorbidity (diabetes, immunosuppression, etc.), or who reside in long-term care facilities
- Young healthy persons without significant comorbidity should not be tested (see guidance for management). This recommendation may change when more testing becomes available
- The institution is actively working to expand its testing capability
We remain hopeful that testing capacity will improve in the next couple of weeks and we will not only be able to more broadly test patients from Nebraska Medicine, but also contribute to fighting the epidemic throughout the state.