COVID Medical Admission

Patients who require admission to hospital will have all of the following presentations:

• Clinical or radiological evidence of pneumonia/hypoxia
• Acute respiratory distress syndrome
• Influenza like illness (fever > 37.7C + persistent new cough/shortness of breath)/anosmia

Points to note when considering admission:

• Patients who require medical admission must have a clinical need for hospitalisation.
• Many outpatient options including ED Virtual clinic, COVID Virtual ward or Ambulatory Emergency Care options are available for monitoring intermediate risk patients.
• Low risk patients should be given supportive advice.
• Procalcitonin should be requested 24 hours after admission; this should be checked with Consultant on Post Take Ward Round (PTWR) to ensure the limited testing is used appropriately to aid in antibiotic rationalisation.
• If patients are considered eligible for Tocilizumab; consider at least one procalcitonin test.

Admission via medical take should include the following considerations:

NOTE:

All patients should have these baseline investigations, available via Cerner>>COVID -order set-.

Flu swabs should be used in event of high local prevalence of flu ONLY. Last updated: December 2020.