Date of Graduation

Fall 12-12-2020

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Abstract

The novel SARS-CoV-2 strain (COVID-19) was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019 (Eddy et. al, 2020). The resulting US outbreak has affected the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Oakland health care system. With the threat of COVID-19 highest among immunosuppressed and elderly clients, KP Oakland home health and hospice (HH/HO) department is rapidly mobilizing to provide community and in-home testing for eligible clients. A project was created to build a COVID-19 testing team workflow to provide diagnostic and preventative testing. This project focuses on team-based interventions that will change the pre-existing practice of requiring HH/HO clients to travel to remote testing sites or outpatient facilities for COVID-19 specimen collection. COVID-19 sampling in a home environment reduces the risk of community spread and allows those who cannot travel to have the means to be tested (Kumari et. al, 2020).

The mitigation strategies for COVID-19 in the home environment must include specimen collection competencies, testing workflows, and creating case definitions for implementing testing practices. Per current national guidelines and KP mitigation strategies, clinical testing for COVID-19 is strongly recommended for symptomatic patients and required for asymptomatic patients receiving care in acute and outpatient procedural settings (see appendix A).

Outcome measures for this project include the number of HH/HO clients tested by the new KP Oakland testing team, compared to the number of HH/HO patients requiring testing at outside facilities or agencies. The newly developed workflow also tracks the amount of days from COVID-19 test order to testing date.

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