COVID-19 Oximetry @home (CO@h) is a new initiative from NHS England whereby patients with symptomatic COVID-19 who do not need immediate hospital attention but are high risk of developing serious symptoms are to be given pulse oximeters to use at home for 14 days, with regular remote monitoring (by SMS/email/phone). Further information can be found here.
The NHS England guidance states, the COVID Oximetry @home pathway should be available to people who are:
- Diagnosed with COVID-19: either clinically or positive test result AND
- Symptomatic AND EITHER
- Aged 65 years or older OR
- Under 65 years and clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID. (The Clinically Extremely Vulnerable to COVID list should be used as the primary guide. Clinical judgment can apply and take into account multiple additional COVID risk factors: for the most part, it is anticipated that this will already have led to inclusion on the CEV list. National criteria for inclusion on the CEV list are set and updated by the Government).
Ardens has developed a number of resources to support the COVID-19 Oximetry @home process.
COVID Oximetry @Home Template
The Ardens COVID Oximetry @Home Template offers guidance and recording of data for the 5 stages of the patient journey.
Access the template in one of the following ways:
- Click on the Run Template option within the consultation.
- Click on the Add > Data using Template option outside of a consultation.
Clicking on either of the options above will display the Template Picker screen. Search for the 'COVID oximetry at home' template using the search box provided or folder navigation pane. Select the template and click OK.
The template has been broken down by pages to make it easy to navigate.
The Referral + Administration page outlines the criteria of the Referral (Stage 1). In order to meet the requirement, the patient must either have a clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 diagnosis recorded or a recent laboratory-positive test coded. The COVID 19 section allows you to view the latest information recorded (if any) to the right of the field, with the option to code the confirmed diagnosis if required.
Information on the Risk Stratification can also be found here, with the option to update the patients risk category based on clinical judgement.
The Risk Assessment page gives guidance on the Triage (Stage 2). The Clinical Review page can be used to record the assessment.
The Onboarding page (Stage 3) allows practices to record the remote care monitoring has commenced for the patient (its important this code is selected for the patient to be included in the 'COVID remote monitoring register' search provided by Ardens), along with prompts of discussion with the patient.
The Pulse oximeter loan page will keep track of the pulse oximeters being loaned and returned to the practice. Further Equipment Loan searches are available to keep track of patients that have practice equipment on loan, please see following support article.
The Clinical Review page is to be used to record the assessment and to monitor the patients progress. This is helpful for Triage (Stage 2) and Monitoring (Stage 4) of the patients journey.
The Recovery and Discharge page should be used to remove the patient from remote care monitoring once ended.
Complete the template required using the required fields and ensure you save the information, using the Save Template option.
COVID Remote Monitoring (CO@H) Searches
The Ardens COVID Remote Monitoring (CO@H) searches provides practices with a list of patients on the remote monitoring register, along with a list of patients to consider adding to the COVID remote monitoring.
For further information, please see the following support article.
Virtual Ward
For those areas required to set up a 'Virtual Ward', Ardens has provided a report to identify patients referred and admitted to the virtual ward.
To locate the searches, access the Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 1.30 Administration - Misc > Virtual Ward folder.
If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk