June 19: DAILY COVID-19 UPDATE

NEW TODAY: Here’s the latest information about Michigan Medicine’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic:

• DAILY PATIENT STATS
• DAILY TEAM MEMBER TESTING STATS
• VISITOR POLICY ENFORCEMENT
• ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEE SCREENING QUESTIONS
• MEDCONNECT SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR INPATIENTS
• UPDATED ENTRANCE LIST & REMINDER

DAILY PATIENT STATS

Today’s census for COVID-19 inpatients and those patients under investigation (PUI) are noted below: 

Discharges: 615 total COVID-19 discharges to date, 3 in the last 24 hours. These numbers include patients discharged to skilled nursing facilities but excludes deaths and discharges to hospice.

DAILY TEAM MEMBER TESTING STATS*

* Data from 3/10 through 6/19. The testing stats reflect just Michigan Medicine employees, not all University of Michigan employees. It also reflects only those who sought testing at or were hospitalized at Michigan Medicine or reported their testing to Occupational Health Services. Some Michigan Medicine employees may have been tested outside our system.

VISITOR POLICY ENFORCEMENT

The visitor policy is in place for the safety of patients, visitors, faculty and staff. Cooperation from all providers, nurses and unit leaders is needed to ensure policy adherence.

Number of Visitors

When a visitor arrives at the hospital, they are directed by the Security screening personnel at the entrance to step over and speak with Entrance Services to determine their eligibility for visitation. The process requires the Entrance Services employee to call the unit in question and advise the unit clerk of a potential visitor. The unit clerk will then advise Entrance Services if the visitor is allowed to come up to the unit. Clerical staff will keep track of the visitors on their unit so that any additional calls for the same patient can be referenced and multiple visitors are not sent up.

The latest visitor restrictions policy is posted on PolicyStat and can be accessed by clicking here.

Visiting Hours Announcement

Visiting hours end at 9 p.m. every day. Beginning Monday, June 22, announcements will be made over the PA system in UH and CVC at 8:45 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. to encourage visitors to leave. These announcements are a pilot project designed to help faculty and staff on the units enforce visiting hours.

Questions

Any questions or concerns regarding the visitor policy should be managed by local leadership and escalated to MPLAN partners as needed.

Information for patients and families can be found on the Visitor Guidelines page of the Michigan Medicine website.

ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEE SCREENING QUESTIONS

Beginning on Monday June 22, in addition to the symptom screening questions, workforce members will also answer questions in the self-screening app about household exposures to COVID-19 and international travel. Individuals who answer “yes” to those questions will be asked to call Occupational Health Services for further instructions. Those with a household exposure may be tested for COVID-19.

MEDCONNECT SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR INPATIENTS
Social isolation and loneliness were challenges in our society before the COVID-19 pandemic. For patients currently admitted to the hospital with few-to-no visitors, this can be a heightened challenge. A new initiative, called MedConnect, has been developed by two medical students, Nina Maghsoodi and Bryana Bayly, to provide extra social support to patients during this time.

The program, supported by a team of medical students, social work students, supervising physicians and social workers, pairs patients with a team of “virtual buddies” up until their date of discharge (the buddy team consists of a MSW student/intern and a 3rd or 4th year medical student). The purpose of this program is to provide extra social support and companionship to patients through phone and/or video calls, with the hopes of decreasing the likelihood of patients developing negative mental health outcomes associated with isolation.

The attached flyers provide detailed information for providers wishing to refer patients to the program, and for patients to explain how the MedConnect program works.

UPDATED ENTRANCE LIST & REMINDER
As a reminder, in order to have full compliance with the screening requirements of the Executive Order, the organization is closing all unattended entrances on the main medical campus and requiring entry via an attended entrance by either using the mobile screening tool or by directly answering screening questions. This change will be effective Sunday, June 21, and will ensure facilities are as safe as possible.

Please refer to the list below for the most current entrance information.

·       Mott main entrance (open 24/7)

·       Taubman/University Hospital main entrance (24/7)

·       Taubman Center Level 2 near P2/P3 (6 a.m. – 7 p.m. daily)

·       Frankel Cardiovascular Center main entrance (24/7)

·       Rogel Cancer Center staff entrance (6 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday-Friday)

·       Rogel Cancer Center main entrance (afterhours/weekends for staff)

·       Medical school/Rogel Cancer Center link/P1 skywalk (24/7)

·       Med Sci Building II (24/7)

·       Adult Emergency Services (patients only, 24/7)

·       Children’s Emergency Services (patients only, 24/7)

·       Radiation oncology (patients only, 24/7)

Still have questions?

We are also posting all daily bulletins and policies on Michigan Medicine Headlines athttps://mmheadlines.org/covid-19-updates/.  Please bookmark that site and refer to it throughout the day for the most up-to-date information. An FAQ for staff is also posted and updated frequently.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for on these web pages, please email coronavirus-info@med.umich.edu and your question will be answered as quickly as possible.  Do not use this email for sharing patient health information.

Jeffrey Desmond, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer