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9.3.20 Medical Staff Huddle - COVID-19
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Sept. 3, 2020
COVID-19 Patient Status
Below is an update on the number of COVID-19 patients from March 1 to present. As of Sept. 3, 2020:

  • 3,633 COVID-19+ total inpatient admissions to date
  • 77 COVID-19+ currently hospitalized (no change from Aug. 13)
  • 383 total deaths to date (includes inpatient, hospice and emergency department)
  • 3,322 discharged patients to date
Convalescent Plasma Therapy at Inova
On Aug. 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) to be used as a passive immune therapy to treat hospitalized COVID-19-positive patients.
 
  • A multidisciplinary team at Inova is making plans to incorporate CCP into our COVID-19 treatment algorithms and order sets for patients with COVID-19, and they are developing educational materials for our team members who will be caring for COVID-19 positive patients receiving CCP.
  • To ensure ongoing supply of CCP, Inova Blood Donor Services is asking providers to discuss plasma donation with their patients who have recovered from COVID-19.
    • Donation information will be included in the After Visit Summary for those hospitalized with COVID-19.
    • Interested donors can sign up at https://www.inovablood.org/covid19plasma/.
  • Inova’s COVID-19 research team is proud to have been able to offer CCP from the beginning of the pandemic through our own investigator-initiated study, which screened CCP donors and also provided a pathway for critically ill patients to receive CCP through the study. (see graphic below)
    • Now that there is the FDA EUA, this study has been stopped.
    • The study leaves behind a stockpile of CCP available to be used by Inova.
    • From a research standpoint, our collected Biobank blood samples from both CCP donors and recipients will enable future collaborations and scientific discovery.
 
Inova COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Program | April – August 2020
Respiratory Illness Clinic Update - Dulles South
  • As of Sept. 1, Inova’s Respiratory Illness Clinic (RIC) at Dulles South has transitioned back to offering urgent care services only and is no longer functioning as a RIC screening site.
  • The Dulles South location will continue to provide vehicle-side COVID testing with a physician order.
  • Inova’s successful RIC model was established to support our patients and providers with screening and testing options as COVID-19 surged in our region. Now that cases in our region have stabilized, we are pleased to support the Dulles South community with urgent care services for minor injuries, including lacerations and non-respiratory illnesses. X-ray is available on-site.
  • See the Inova Respiratory Illness Clinic page to view our complement of respiratory screening and COVID-19 testing locations.
 
Countdown to Flu Season

Team Member Vaccination Due Oct. 30: Ready? Set? Go! Inova’s team member flu clinics are underway. Get a shot and get it early!
 
 
Public Vaccination: Inova is now offering flu vaccinations to children ages 6 months and older at our five hospital locations and at five Inova Urgent Care Center locations: Dulles South, West Springfield, Centreville, Vienna and South Arlington. Available times and insurance options may vary between hospital-based and UCC locations.
 
Behavioral Health Service Line Physician Leader Named
Linda Lang, MD, has accepted the position of President, Behavioral Health Service Line and Chair of Psychiatry, IFMC.

 
Negative Pressure Room Reminder

  • Negative pressure rooms should be checked daily prior to placing an airborne isolation patient into the room.
  • Direction of airflow should be monitored to ensure proper functioning and results should be documented.
  • If the negative pressure room is not functioning properly, move the patient to a functioning room and notify the Engineering department by submitting an online work order and calling the department.
  • See Negative Pressure Room Addendum I on InovaNet for more information.
Oxygen Safety During Patient Transport

  • As part of our continuous learning and improving patient safety to prevent harm, we recently updated standard work and roles/responsibilities for transporting patients on oxygen.
  • Transporting patients on oxygen presents potentially high-risk situations where a purposeful PAUSE for oxygen safety before transport can prevent an error and patient harm.
  • Clinical leaders have been provided toolkits to review with their teams. This includes the Do’s and Don’ts to Make a Safe Connection when transferring patients with oxygen.
  • Please be sure that you have reviewed this important safety information with your unit or medical staff leader.
 
COVID-19 Research Update

BiobankInova has created its first ever system-wide Coronavirus Clinical Data and Biobanking Repository for COVID-19 positive and recovered individuals. Any individual who seeks care at an Inova facility for COVID-19 is eligible to participate. This clinical data and biobanking repository are available to internal Inova collaborators, as well as external collaborators in an effort to better understand how to treat and take care of our patients. This is an active partnership with the National Institutes of Health to help collaborate and support their internal scientists’ efforts.

Verily Inova is one of three sites in the US partnering with Verily, an Alphabet company (Google), to conduct a study to understand the process of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients who have been confirmed positive for COVID-19. Researchers will collect blood specimens from study participants at various times during their inpatient admission. Verily hopes to be able to detect biomarkers in patients’ blood samples that predict who will have mild symptoms and who will progress to ARDS. The results could help promote earlier care. Inova’s research team will be screening the units daily for patients and may call/approach the care team about enrolling patients.

National Preparedness Month
September is National Preparedness Month and this year’s theme is "Disasters Don’t Wait. Make your Plan Today." COVID-19 impacts how we prepare, respond and recover from other disasters and emergencies – don’t wait until it’s too late to make a plan.

Check with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and update your personal and family emergency plans to ensure you are prepared for COVID-19. Make sure you have cloth face coverings (for everyone over 2 years old) in your emergency kit and disinfectants such as soap and hand sanitizer. Check out the resources below for more information on how to prepare.

See more tips on InovaNet (requires Citrix access)
Ready.gov PSA COVID-19 – YouTube (0:30)
Inova in the News
In light of the death of popular actor Chadwick Boseman, Dr. Timothy Cannon joined Good Morning America on Sunday, Aug. 30, to talk about colon cancer.

 
Epic Updates
 
Reference Lab Changes – Starting Sept. 4, Inova will begin transitioning the final 50 send-out tests to Mayo Clinical Labs - a process we began in Sept. 2019 to improve the quality of testing.
 
 
Temporary Pneumocystis Lab Order Change Due to reagent availability issues, the Inova Central Laboratory must temporarily stop offering Pneumocystis jirovecii DFA testing. It is not currently available in Epic.
  • As a replacement, please order: Pneumocystis jiroveci, Molecular Detection, PCR, EAP LAB14034.
  • The discontinued test will be removed from personal/departmental/facility preference lists, and existing order panels will be updated to include the replacement option.
  • LAB14034 is a PCR test that is sent to Mayo Clinic Laboratories. The turnaround time is generally 1-2 days and the PCR is expected to have greater sensitivity than the DFA.
  • The literature indicates that Pneumocystis can cause asymptomatic colonization of healthy and immunocompromised individuals. Therefore, PCR test results should be correlated with patient symptoms and clinical presentation.
 
Order Set UpdatesThe attached order sets have been reviewed and updates will go live Sept. 9-10. Please note that, for safety and quality reasons, all individual personalizations of these sets will be removed. Remember, this only happens on an annual basis.

 
Epic Upgrade Coming Sept. 17
On Thursday, Sept. 17, Inova will be upgrading to Epic version February 2020. The upgrade continues to improve on ways to increase efficiency and clarity of information presented in the Epic EMR, with new dashboards, added features to Storyboards, improved menus, and much more.

Team Member Well-Being

Wellness Tip of the Day
Believe in yourself. Trust that you can do this! Interrupt any negative thoughts that pop into your mind. Remember all your previous successes. Think about how you used your strengths to achieve those wins and apply those skills to this scenario.
Behavioral Health

Team Member Well-Being Resources
Inova cares about the well-being of all our team members. As a reminder, the Team Member Well-Being resource is frequently updated with videos, articles and activities to help you and yours manage stress, anxiety and communication.
 
 
Team Member Resources
Inova Newsroom
Safe@Inova
Continuing Medical Education


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