COVID-19 Surveillance Testing of Healthcare Personnel Drives Universal Masking Practice

Authors

Paul S. Schulz, Infectious Diseases, Norton HealthcareFollow
Ashley M. Wilde, Norton Healthcare Pharmacy ServicesFollow
Steve T. Hester, Provider Operations, Norton HealthcareFollow
Jim Frazier, Medical Affairs, Norton HealthcareFollow
Julio A. Ramirez, University of LouisvilleFollow

Funder

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Abstract

Health care professionals (HCP) are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection due to the unpredictable clinical presentation of COVID-19 disease, limited SARS-CoV-2 testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, and the inherent inability to distance from patients. Infected HCP may infect others, including coworkers, leading to a simultaneous increase in the number of infections and decrease in the availability of HCP in a community. Due to PPE shortages, many healthcare systems have faced difficult decisions regarding utilization of PPE to protect HCP, patients, and the communities they serve. We describe Norton Healthcare’s success utilizing surveillance COVID-19 testing of HCP to inform the decision to increase the use of PPE during a PPE shortage in the form of universal masking. Many healthcare systems could benefit from surveillance COVID-19 testing of HCP and universal masking of HCP.

DOI

10.18297/jri/vol4/iss1/50

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Schulz, Paul S.; Wilde, Ashley M.; Hester, Steve T.; Frazier, Jim; and Ramirez, Julio A. (2020) "COVID-19 Surveillance Testing of Healthcare Personnel Drives Universal Masking Practice," The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections: Vol. 4 : Iss. 1 , Article 50.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18297/jri/vol4/iss1/50
Available at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jri/vol4/iss1/50