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Dr. Alison Roxby leads volunteer testing teams
May 31, 2020

COVID testing in local area nursing homes

UW Medicine response plan for outbreaks in skilled nursing facilities include rapid deployment of interdisciplinary care teams.
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Clinical Research

Skilled nursing facilities have been some of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

UW Medicine has implemented a response plan and has been deploying teams to its partner skilled nursing facilities to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to decrease its burden on local acute-care hospitals and emergency medical services.

The response plan has three phases: 1) Test current symptomatic residents; 2) Provide infection-control education, prevention, and planning, and 3) Deploy teams to provide onsite assistance with testing, clinical assessment and triage.

Dr. Alison Roxby leads a volunteer team who recently helped test over 70+ people in a facility with six confirmed COVID positive cases.

"There will be many unsung heroes during this time," said Dr. Thuan Ong, Medical Director, UW Post-Acute Care, Harborview Medical Center, "but the outstanding work in the community and contributions of these teams in the face of this pandemic go above and beyond."

The teams are composed of volunteer UW faculty and staff, including the following in the Department of Medicine:

  • Vidya Atluri, senior fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Rachel Bender Ignacio, acting assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Chase Cannon, senior fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Maria Corcorran, acting instructor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Emily Ford, acting instructor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Kevin Ikuta, senior fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Rupali Jain, clinical associate professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Sylvia LaCourse, assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Isabela Lins Cardim, clinical instructor (Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine)
  • Santiago Neme, clinical assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Kim O'Connor, associate professor (General Internal Medicine)
  • Genevieve Pagalilauan, associate professor (General Internal Medicine)
  • Jenny Roraback-Carson, clinical instructor (Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine)
  • Alison Roxby, assistant professor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) 
  • Jason Simmons, acting instructor (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Jenell Stewart, senior fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
  • Danniel Zamora, senior fellow (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) 

The outbreak that didn't happen

New research findings may help detect and prevent the spread of COVID19 at independent and assisted living communities. The study looked a how a retirement living facility averted a COVID-19 outbreak. Authors of the study from the Department of Medicine were Alison Roxby, Jeffrey Duchin, Santiago Neme, John Lynch, Timothy Dellit, and Seth Cohen.