TY - JOUR
T1 - Protecting patients and staff in residential treatment centers during exposure to COVID-19
T2 - commentary
AU - Johnson, Kimberly A.
AU - Keough, Carolyn
AU - Hills, Holly
AU - Vermeer, Wouter
AU - Lengnick-Hall, Rebecca
AU - McNulty, Moira
AU - McGovern, Mark
AU - Brown, Hendricks
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper was supported by NIDA Award: 5P30DA027828-10S1, Supplement to CENTER FOR PREVENTION IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY FOR DRUG ABUSE AND HIV (CE-PIM) Project Period: 07/01/2020–06/30/2021 (12 Months).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis in access to addiction treatment. Programs with residential components have been particularly impacted as they try to keep infection from spreading in facilities and contributing to further community spread of the virus. This crisis highlights the ongoing daily trade-offs that organizations must weigh as they balance the risks and benefits of individual patients with those of the group of patients, staff and the community they serve. Main body: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced provider organizations to make individual facility level decisions about how to manage patients who are COVID-19 positive while protecting other patients, staff and the community. While guidance documents from federal, state, and trade groups aimed to support such decision making, they often lagged pandemic dynamics, and provided too little detail to translate into front line decision making. In the context of incomplete knowledge to make informed decisions, we present a way to integrate guidelines and local data into the decision process and discuss the ethical dilemmas faced by provider organizations in preventing infections and responding to COVID positive patients or staff. Conclusion and commentary: Provider organizations need decision support on managing the risk of COVID-19 positive patients in their milieu. While useful, guidance documents may not be capable of providing support with the nuance that local data and simulation modeling may be able to provide.
AB - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis in access to addiction treatment. Programs with residential components have been particularly impacted as they try to keep infection from spreading in facilities and contributing to further community spread of the virus. This crisis highlights the ongoing daily trade-offs that organizations must weigh as they balance the risks and benefits of individual patients with those of the group of patients, staff and the community they serve. Main body: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced provider organizations to make individual facility level decisions about how to manage patients who are COVID-19 positive while protecting other patients, staff and the community. While guidance documents from federal, state, and trade groups aimed to support such decision making, they often lagged pandemic dynamics, and provided too little detail to translate into front line decision making. In the context of incomplete knowledge to make informed decisions, we present a way to integrate guidelines and local data into the decision process and discuss the ethical dilemmas faced by provider organizations in preventing infections and responding to COVID positive patients or staff. Conclusion and commentary: Provider organizations need decision support on managing the risk of COVID-19 positive patients in their milieu. While useful, guidance documents may not be capable of providing support with the nuance that local data and simulation modeling may be able to provide.
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U2 - 10.1186/s13722-021-00258-2
DO - 10.1186/s13722-021-00258-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 34330335
AN - SCOPUS:85111691925
VL - 16
JO - Addiction science & clinical practice
JF - Addiction science & clinical practice
SN - 1940-0632
IS - 1
M1 - 49
ER -
