COVID-19 Clinical Guidance and Testing

The WSMA has joined state leaders in urging action immediately by our federal government to relieve the shortage of personal protective equipment in Washington state.

If your clinic or hospital in Washington state needs personal protective equipment, contact Salem Adisu with the King County Medical Society at sadisu@kcmsociety.org. KCMS has partnered with Providence Health System to expand the Providence "100 Million Mask Challenge." Learn more

Gov. Jay Inslee is urging Washington state manufacturers to repurpose their facilities to produce needed PPE and testing supplies. The state's coronavirus response website has details.

The Washington State Department of Health is has released new conservation strategies for PPE as well as a revised prioritization list. (April 3, 2020)

COVID-19 Clinical Guidance

• Washington State Department of Health (DOH): Health Care Provider Resources and Recommendations
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Information for Healthcare Professionals
• World Health Organization (WHO): Country & technical guidance - Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
• Reporting COVID-19 deaths: Washington State Department of Health: Preliminary guidance for reporting COVID-19 deaths
• HIPAA: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: HIPAA Privacy and Novel Coronavirus (February 2020)
• HIPAA: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Notification of Enforcement Discretion for telehealth remote communications during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency (March 17, 2020)
• CME: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education list of COVID-19 physician CME
• Talking with patients about COVID-19: COVID-ready communication skills: a VitalTalk open source primer - Crowdsourced primer from University of Washington physicians, led by Tony Back, MD

Continuing Medical Education on COVID-19

• Honoring Choices PNW, in collaboration with Ariadne Labs and VitalTalk, is holding a series of free webinars on communication skills and tools that physicians, advanced practitioners, and other members of the health care team can use as you respond to the COVID-19 crisis. In the first webinar, Dr. Tony Back from VitalTalk will provide practical advice on how to talk about difficult topics related to COVID-19. Building on their experience studying and teaching communication for two decades, VitalTalk has drawn on their networks to crowdsource the challenges and match them with advice from some of the best clinicians we know. If you know their work, you’ll recognize some familiar themes, and you’ll also find new material.
  
  The first webinar will be held on Friday, April 10 from 12-1 p.m. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Register online.


• The WSMA hosts a weekly call on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. for ICU medical directors and clinicians to discuss patient cases and develop recommendations for care. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. To join the calls, please email brendan@wsma.org with your name, credentials, specialty/title, and organization.
• The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has an extensive listing of online COVID-19 CME activities.

COVID-19 Evaluating, Testing, and Protection

Guidance on evaluating and testing for COVID-19

• Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Evaluating and Testing Persons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• Washington State Department of Health: COVID-19 Testing Information for Healthcare Providers

Workforce protections
In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Washington Healthcare Forum Work Group, made up of leading health care organizations in Washington state, including the WSMA, are working together to create a common set of high-level recommendations that individual organizations will use to develop their own individual policies and procedures related to the protection of their employees and patients.

• Consensus Recommendations for Personal Protective Equipment Use, Collection of Nasopharyngeal (NP) or Oropharyngeal (OP) Swabs, and Workplace Exposure (March 23, 2020)

Other guidance

• Washington State Department of Health: Infection Prevention and PPE
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Interim U.S. Guidance for Risk Assessment and Public Health Management of Healthcare Personnel with Potential Exposure in a Healthcare Setting to Patients with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
• World Health Organization: Guidelines for Infection Prevention and Control During Health Care When a Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Infection Is Suspected

Caring for High-Risk COVID-19 Patients

Respecting Choices® has just announced it is offering an open-source toolkit for those caring for high-risk COVID-19 patients. These patients are feeling especially vulnerable, as are their loved ones. The toolkit includes guidance for conversations about treatment preferences before a medical crisis, as well as resources to support specific treatment decisions in high-risk individuals.

Washington Health Care Authority certified Respecting Choices' patient decision aids on "Help with Breathing" and "CPR"; both of which are included in Respecting Choices' open-source toolkit, along with many other resources.

Additionally, Honoring Choices^® Pacific Northwest, jointly sponsored by the WSMA Foundation and the Washington State Hospital Association, has partnered with Respecting Choices to offer an online course to physicians and advanced practitioners in Washington state. Through a grant from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the online modules are free of charge for WSMA members and members of the Honoring Choices PNW initiative (use discount code: HCPNWPartner) until February 2021. Designed for physicians and advanced practitioners, the three-module online course will enhance your ability to effectively introduce and motivate patients to participate in basic advance care planning (ACP); guide and document basic ACP conversations with patients and families; and successfully integrate and bill for basic ACP in everyday practice. Get started at: wsma.org/BasicACPModules.