{"pk":13782,"title":"Home-based Testing for SARS-CoV-2: Leveraging Prehospital Resources for Vulnerable Populations","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Introduction:\n Expanded testing for SARS-CoV-2 is critical to characterizing the extent of community spread of COVID-19 and to identifying infectious cohorts. Unfortunately, current facility-based testing compounds shortcomings in testing availability, neglecting those who are frail or physically unable to travel to a testing facility.\nMethods:\n We developed an emergency medical service (EMS)-based home testing and evaluation program, leveraging existing community EMS resources. This program has kept vulnerable populations out of the emergency department, reduced cost, and improved access to care.\nResults:\n Our EMS-based testing program can test approximately 15 homebound patients per day. Through April 2020 our program had performed 477 home-based tests. Additionally, we have recently undertaken several mass testing operations, testing up to 900 patients per testing site.\nConclusion:\n Facility-based SARS-CoV-2 testing requires that a patient physically present to a facility for a nasopharyngeal swap to be collected. Unfortunately, access may be limited for patients that are homebound, chronically ill, or without a means of private transportation. By leveraging existing EMS infrastructure in new ways, our community has been able to keep almost 500 vulnerable patients in their home. Using EMS, we can strengthen the healthcare system’s response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and support at-risk populations, including those that are underserved, homebound, and frail.","language":"en","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Medicine, Public Health, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19"}],"section":"Emergency Medical Services","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gq9k58p","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Scott","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Goldberg","name_suffix":"","institution":"Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Robert","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Bonacci","name_suffix":"","institution":"Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Lucas","middle_name":"C.","last_name":"Carlson","name_suffix":"","institution":"Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts \nPopulation Health Management, Partners HealthCare, Boston, Massachusetts","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Charles","middle_name":"T.","last_name":"Pu","name_suffix":"","institution":"Population Health Management, Partners HealthCare, Boston, Massachusetts \nMassachusetts General Hospital, Department of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Christine","middle_name":"S.","last_name":"Ritchie","name_suffix":"","institution":"Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Medicine, Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine and the Mongan Institute, Boston, Massachusetts","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2020-04-17T20:39:23+01:00","date_accepted":"2020-04-17T20:39:23+01:00","date_published":"2020-06-15T20:24:37+01:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/westjem/article/13782/galley/7180/download/"}]}