EMSGuy1982 Posted February 29, 2020 Share Posted February 29, 2020 7 minutes ago, MediMike said: I'll be biking out in your neck of the woods today, I'm not coming after your stuff, don't shoot me. Banner Forrest? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 21 hours ago, EMSGuy1982 said: First confirmed fatality in US in my sate. President to address the nation today. Here we go... Man in his 50s with other serious health conditions, it said. That makes the current mortality rate for US confirmed cases 1.4%. We shall see how it all unfolds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted March 2, 2020 Author Share Posted March 2, 2020 (edited) The Science video was actually really good. My takeaway...were fooked. He said 15% of healthcare workers infected in china went on to develop serious complications including hospital admission, ICU etc. The only recommendation? Wear full PPE. Good luck in Urgent Care.... Edited March 2, 2020 by Cideous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 7 minutes ago, Cideous said: Good luck in Urgent Care Yikes. Knew I should have gone into occ med. Guess I should enjoy my next few days off before going back. My UC has been slammed the last few weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgriffiths Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 (edited) I'm regretting volunteering to pick up a few days in our UCs this month...did so before it had spread internationally. But, now they're getting no one to volunteer for May and beyond...so the providers they have are having to cancel CME and vacations they had planned. Edited March 3, 2020 by mgriffiths 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pac30 Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 Yep, I'm just working my required shifts and staying the heck away from the madness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MediMike Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 Oh God. It's happening. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 24 minutes ago, MediMike said: Oh God. It's happening. Haven’t you ever seen Macgyver?! Eyeglass repair kits are priceless during an apocalypse.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted March 3, 2020 Administrator Share Posted March 3, 2020 Heard from my wife that Costco got cleaned out of bottled water, but everything else looks normal here. Weird. Of all the things I expect to NOT need in a pandemic situation, bottled water would be one of them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MediMike Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 Seen multiple grocery carts full. Made me worried I missed something about an earthquake or Rainier getting ready to blow... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted March 3, 2020 Author Share Posted March 3, 2020 Toilet paper here all gone. It's all happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgriffiths Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 1 minute ago, Cideous said: Toilet paper here all gone. But are they out of paper grocery bags... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 (edited) Starting to be kind of a ship (you know what I mean) show here. It appears my states government is scrambling. Purchasing properties and putting trailers on them for quarantine sites that will likely get converted to homeless housing after all is said and done (if it happens). Many providers unsure if we should be testing or not, tons of patients that are very concerned and want to be tested but don’t fit the criteria. This is slowly becoming a giant headache here. I’ve been keeping up on what South Korea is doing with their “drive thru testing sites” which I think is a great idea. It lowers exposure, can get a lot of testing going if needed and no doubt that most every American knows how to pull through a drive through. It seems that could be applicable here. Then there are people who want testing but complain about having to possibly paying for it. (Facepalm). Though I do think the drive through process could have weaknesses. For example of a patient experiencing symptoms drives through and gets tested then wrecks their car or worse. Is that an acceptable risk? The state DOH are telling patients to not go to the emergency room and to goto their PCP. Guess what? There is a crap ton of people without a PCP and then they get told to goto an urgent care where they are met by a waiting room with 50+ patients sitting around in the first hour of it opening. There has got to be a better way... Sorry for the rant.. (Edited: Well at least they came out today at the White House press briefing that testing will be covered by Medicare/Medicaid at least) strange that they wouldn’t allow the briefing to be recorded. Only still photography... Edited March 4, 2020 by EMSGuy1982 Addition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ak004 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I’m a family med PA in WA (less than an hour south of where 9 COVID deaths have been). I’ve found the state public health response here to be beyond unhelpful. Current criteria for possible COVID? Fever, cough, SOB. This fits all the cold and flu viruses going around currently. They’re telling people to go to their PCP rather than ER if they have symptoms, like us PCPs know some special information to rule out/rule in COVID. The public health department has given us zero information or further guidance on who to test or how to triage. We’re a private practice, 2 provider office. We’re WAY less equipped to deal with this sort of situation compared to a large hospital with an infection control department. Had a patient yesterday who worked in the area it’s been spreading, and had all the aforementioned symptoms. We put the patient in our makeshift isolation room and my MA and I got all gowned up. Called public health and their reason not to test: patient doesn’t have current fever (she took Tylenol to bring down fever earlier in the day) and isn’t sick enough to be hospitalized. Doesn’t really rule it out in my mind, but we did what we could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MediMike Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I'm guessing they are looking at it from the perspective of better a PCP office than a waiting room full of patients as mentioned above. Plus it's not really an emergency right? I'm assuming the region's PCPs have access to the same CDC material and instruction stuff that the EDs do. Sounds like you guys did the right thing, same as would have happened in the hospital. Educate them to call rather than show up and to just stay the heck home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cideous Posted March 4, 2020 Author Share Posted March 4, 2020 44 minutes ago, ak004 said: I’m a family med PA in WA (less than an hour south of where 9 COVID deaths have been). I’ve found the state public health response here to be beyond unhelpful. Current criteria for possible COVID? Fever, cough, SOB. This fits all the cold and flu viruses going around currently. They’re telling people to go to their PCP rather than ER if they have symptoms, like us PCPs know some special information to rule out/rule in COVID. The public health department has given us zero information or further guidance on who to test or how to triage. We’re a private practice, 2 provider office. We’re WAY less equipped to deal with this sort of situation compared to a large hospital with an infection control department. Had a patient yesterday who worked in the area it’s been spreading, and had all the aforementioned symptoms. We put the patient in our makeshift isolation room and my MA and I got all gowned up. Called public health and their reason not to test: patient doesn’t have current fever (she took Tylenol to bring down fever earlier in the day) and isn’t sick enough to be hospitalized. Doesn’t really rule it out in my mind, but we did what we could. OMG the liability and lawsuits when people are sent home, develop pneumonia and die. What a nightmare on the horizon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaitea Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 50 minutes ago, ak004 said: I’m a family med PA in WA (less than an hour south of where 9 COVID deaths have been). I’ve found the state public health response here to be beyond unhelpful. Current criteria for possible COVID? Fever, cough, SOB. This fits all the cold and flu viruses going around currently. They’re telling people to go to their PCP rather than ER if they have symptoms, like us PCPs know some special information to rule out/rule in COVID. The public health department has given us zero information or further guidance on who to test or how to triage. We’re a private practice, 2 provider office. We’re WAY less equipped to deal with this sort of situation compared to a large hospital with an infection control department. Had a patient yesterday who worked in the area it’s been spreading, and had all the aforementioned symptoms. We put the patient in our makeshift isolation room and my MA and I got all gowned up. Called public health and their reason not to test: patient doesn’t have current fever (she took Tylenol to bring down fever earlier in the day) and isn’t sick enough to be hospitalized. Doesn’t really rule it out in my mind, but we did what we could. So a similar scenario happened to my family member today. He lives in Washington and works in the area that the outbreak has happened. Two of his colleagues have been quarantined. Yesterday he started to feel ill, and had all the S/S of COVID and was febrile (he took Tylenol as well), although he also had some diarrhea (which has been found in some patients per the studies). He went to UC, and a PA did rapid influenza which was negative. Patient insisted on COVID test, especially knowing his exposure. PA left his room for a LONG time. Finally came back and was told that he is not sick enough for the test and that it was not in his power to do it. He was not put on quarantine but got some time off work. What the ____ is the CDC doing? No wonder the numbers are low, they are only testing the extremely sick and at random at best. Can't have cases if you don't test! Seriously, why wouldn't we test so we can tell people to stay home at least? All the infected people are just running around spreading it since we are not testing. Why even report numbers? They are a total lie. Sorry, I am angry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ak004 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 I'm guessing they are looking at it from the perspective of better a PCP office than a waiting room full of patients as mentioned above. Plus it's not really an emergency right? I'm assuming the region's PCPs have access to the same CDC material and instruction stuff that the EDs do. Sounds like you guys did the right thing, same as would have happened in the hospital. Educate them to call rather than show up and to just stay the heck home!We have been calling all the next day patients and screening for any symptoms of illness, and if they meet “criteria” we will be isolating them pending visit with a provider. And all patients that call wanting to be seen for an illness are again heavily screened by the RN (or myself) to see if they should show up at all or just home quarantine. We had an emergency office meeting yesterday, and we’ve put in places the best protocol we can, given the information we have available Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 (edited) 59 minutes ago, Cideous said: OMG the liability and lawsuits when people are sent home, develop pneumonia and die. What a nightmare on the horizon. Documentation with names of who you talked to, where they were from, and time of call. Best you can do really. The screening tool was pretty much garbage from the start. Can’t do much if the health department says no, though I’m not sure who gave them the power to do that. Load me up with the URI cocktail and hope it’s not COVID I suppose. Hard to think how they couldn’t imagine this would happen with the flights in/out daily. Not surprised that our frustration is mirrored elsewhere. political references in this aside the frustration is real and I’ll just say epic failure. Edited March 4, 2020 by EMSGuy1982 Adding video 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMSGuy1982 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 According to Vice President Pence per a press briefing this evening that anyone can now be tested... let’s see if this holds true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marinejiujitsu Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Another 2 comfirmed cases in my county. We are now setting up screening tents out in the front of the ER in full gear. Yay. Respiratory panels with anyoneover 40 with a fever, cough, and complaining of shortness of breath, if negative either admit for isolation or home quarantine while the test is processing. Gotta love this bullcrap we step in the ER. Please God let me get it so I can get workmans comp/disability for about a month while the hysteria wears off.Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted March 4, 2020 Administrator Share Posted March 4, 2020 On 3/2/2020 at 9:22 PM, rev ronin said: Heard from my wife that Costco got cleaned out of bottled water, but everything else looks normal here. Weird. Of all the things I expect to NOT need in a pandemic situation, bottled water would be one of them... Yeah, that changed in a day. There's a lot of stuff they're just plain out of now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted March 4, 2020 Administrator Share Posted March 4, 2020 So, my walk-in period this evening was eerily devoid of respiratory symptoms. I had one ST without cough, but we're JUST enough off the radar that most of what I dealt with tonight was occ med. Per prior scheduling, this will be the last time I do walk-in for a while. It's going to be interesting to see what I come back to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SB23 Posted March 4, 2020 Share Posted March 4, 2020 Currently the WA DOH can only run 200 labs a day. With UW medicine helping it will be bumped up to 300 a day. Still ridiculous for the whole state. I’m not Sure why it takes so long to run them but this is the dilemma we are dealing with. My sibling is a manager at Evergreen hospital (the initial hospital of the outbreak) she has had a fever of 103*f, SOB, and cough going on 9 days now. Cxr negative. They won’t test her so she’s quarantined for now since she still has fevers and cough. It’s a mess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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