Hershey Medical Center begins five-day preoperative, pre-procedural patient COVID testing Aug. 12
Hershey Medical Center will move from three-day to five-day preoperative and pre-procedural patient COVID testing beginning Wednesday, Aug. 12, to minimize disruptions to scheduled patient procedures and surgeries.
The Medical Center is making the change in response to growing delays in test result turnaround from Quest. It affects cases that take place on Monday, Aug. 17.
An interprofessional team adopted the following process for preoperative and pre-procedural COVID testing:
- All patients will now be tested five days prior to their scheduled surgery or procedure.
- Any patient who is an add-on for a procedure/surgery within five days must still be swabbed up to and including the day prior to their surgery. Testing locations include the Westview Parking Garage, Monday through Friday, and 35 Hope Drive on weekends. These tests will be processed in-house, using the current process.
- All teams should drive proactive COVID testing at the five-day mark and refrain from recommending same-day testing as a routinely acceptable process.
- Employees should encourage patients to follow preventative measures prior to their procedure, such as self-isolation. Infectious Diseases and Marketing and Communications will provide a one-page reminder for all patients.
Please see modifications to the preoperative/pre-procedural testing policy to limit retesting for previously test-negative patients (if tested within the prior two to four weeks) and for the limited indications for retesting.
Work with your schedulers to implement these changes in your department process.
St. Joseph leaders are working with its medical staff to revise its current process to reflect the new five-day time frame meant to address pre-op testing delays from third-party labs.
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