EPIDEMIOLOGY
COVID-19 NEWS
Put to the Test continued
“ With no real end in
sight, we’re grateful to
have accomplished so
much in such a short
amount of time.”
SAMUEL DOMINGUEZ, MD, PHD
if they don’t have respiratory
symptoms, receives the SARS-
COV-2 test. They also now
screen patients who are set to
have procedures or who are
undergoing anesthesia. That
way, providers and their teams
can know if those patients
are positive and can don the
appropriate PPE.
ONGOING
ENHANCEMENTS
Led by Dr. Dominguez
and his team, Children’s
Colorado continues to make
adjustments to processes as
necessary to limit the spread of
infection and ensure the safety
of team members, patients and
the broader community.
For example, specimens are
no longer collected from
healthcare workers inside
the hospital. Instead, testing
happens at two drive-thru
collection sites. Perioperative
and immunocompromised
outpatients use those sites too.
There was also a critical
shortage of nasal swabs — one
of the main ways to collect a
specimen. So Dr. Dominguez
and his team got creative.
“With children, we often do
nasopharyngeal washes, which
is where you squirt some saline
into the nose and then collect
it as the specimen,” he says.
“You don’t need swabs for
those because it’s a different
procedure, and you achieve the
same results. It’s been a great
workaround.”
The ability to be proactive
instead of reactive has made the
entire process easier, he says.
“The idea of ‘What we do today
prepares us for tomorrow’
has really carried us through.
None of this would have been
possible without the incredible
work of our government affairs
team, the strong support we’ve
received from the very top
teams at Children’s Colorado,
and the knowledge and early
input of everyone on our
microbiology team, all of whom
continue to work tirelessly day
in and day out. With no real end
in sight, we’re grateful to have
accomplished so much in such a
short amount of time.” •
The Forefront of
Telehealth
How do we weave a telehealth
infrastructure into the fabric of our
operation so that it’s there when our
providers need it most?
Led by director Fred Thomas, PhD, and medical
director Christina Olson, MD, telehealth has
been an option for providers at Children’s
Hospital Colorado for the past decade. Very few
used it, though, due in large part to government
regulations and lack of reimbursements.
But Drs. Olson, Thomas and team worked to
build the program’s infrastructure, including
staying abreast of the latest technology and
conducting research on ways to use it. That
work would come in handy — namely when the
COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Physical therapist Juliette Hawa gets creative during her
telehealth appointment to help keep her patient engaged.
6 | CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO