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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening system utilizing daily symptom attestation helps identify hospital employees who should be tested to protect patients and coworkers

Part of: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2021

Ellen Kim Open the ORCID record for Ellen Kim [Opens in a new window] ,
Charles A. Morris ,
Michael Klompas Open the ORCID record for Michael Klompas [Opens in a new window] ,
Haipeng Zhang ,
Adam B. Landman ,
Sunil Eappen ,
Karen Hopcia ,
Dean M. Hashimoto  and
Hojjat Salmasian Open the ORCID record for Hojjat Salmasian [Opens in a new window]
Ellen Kim*
Affiliation:
Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Charles A. Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Michael Klompas
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Haipeng Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Palliative Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Adam B. Landman
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Sunil Eappen
Affiliation:
Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Karen Hopcia
Affiliation:
Department of Occupational Health Services, Mass General Brigham, Boston, Massachusetts
Dean M. Hashimoto
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Occupational Health Services, Mass General Brigham, Boston, Massachusetts
Hojjat Salmasian
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
*
Author for correspondence: Ellen Kim, E-mail: ellen_kim@dfci.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

To investigate the effectiveness of a daily attestation system used by employees of a multi-institutional academic medical center, which comprised of symptom-screening, self-referrals to the Occupational Health Services team, and/or a severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test.

Design:

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all employee attestations and SARS-CoV-2 tests performed between March and June 2020.

Setting:

A large multi-institutional academic medical center, including both inpatient and ambulatory settings.

Participants:

All employees who worked at the study site.

Methods:

Data were combined from the attestation system (COVIDPass), the employee database, and the electronic health records and were analyzed using descriptive statistics including χ2, Wilcoxon, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. We investigated whether an association existed between symptomatic attestations by the employees and the employee testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Results:

After data linkage and cleaning, there were 2,117,298 attestations submitted by 65,422 employees between March and June 2020. Most attestations were asymptomatic (99.9%). The most commonly reported symptoms were sore throat (n = 910), runny nose (n = 637), and cough (n = 570). Among the 2,026 employees who ever attested that they were symptomatic, 905 employees were tested within 14 days of a symptomatic attestation, and 114 (13%) of these tests were positive. The most common symptoms associated with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were anosmia (23% vs 4%) and fever (46% vs 19%).

Conclusions:

Daily symptom attestations among healthcare workers identified a handful of employees with COVID-19. Although the number of positive tests was low, attestations may help keep unwell employees off campus to prevent transmissions.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 43 , Issue 11 , November 2022 , pp. 1656 - 1660
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America

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