Nurses in Pima Co. AZ Report PCHD Refusing to Test Symptomatic Patients for #COVID-19

[riversedge]

Graphs and letter at site. I am just appalled that things like this are going on and on and on. Can no on stop this? Anyone??





Nurses in Pima Co. AZ Report PCHD Refusing to Test Symptomatic Patients for COVID-19

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/8/1925492/-Nurses-in-Pima-Co-AZ-Report-PCHD-Refusing-to-Test-Symptomatic-Patients-for-COVID-19?utm_campaign=trending


Sunday March 08, 2020 · 12:57 PM CDT

I have not posted here for quite a while for various reasons, but I have come out of my self imposed exile (for lack of a better word) to relay some important information regarding the COVID-19 testing debacle. This will likely not come as a surprise to any of you, but it is a good example of how badly this is being managed thus far.

I live in Arizona, and this popped up in my news feed today under the headline — TELL MEL: Pima County patients turned away from COVID-19 testing? :

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - As concerns over the coronavirus spread through Southern Arizona, so are rumors and questions on social media.

KOLD News 13 has received several phone calls and emails from viewers about COVID-19 testing.

One caller claimed a patient walked out of an area hospital without getting tested. In an email, a viewer claimed information came from nurses.

“According to nurses at a local hospital, PCHD is refusing to test hospitalized patients referred for COVID-19 testing.”

KOLD News 13 reached out to the Pima County Health Department Friday for more information on the county’s testing protocol and to see if there was any confirmation to concerns.

A spokesperson for the health department said hospitals and healthcare providers are using a standardized screening tool to identify when testing is indicated, as are other health departments across the state.

According to this reporting from KOLD’s Melissa Egan, she was sent information from PCHD via e-mail that included the following chart, the “screening tool” mentioned above. It outlines the criteria they are using state wide to determine who is tested, and who isn’t.

COVID-19 PCHD via KOLD news Tucson, AZ

My interpretation of this chart is, unless you are symptomatic after travel to an affected area (everywhere?), symptomatic after contact with someone who has actually tested positive, or you are in immediate danger of dying from COVID-19 symptoms from presumed community exposure, you will not be tested........................
.......................................

As of Saturday, 3/7/2020, Arizona has 2 confirmed positive cases, 3 presumed positive cases, and 7 tests are pending results. Only a total of 56 people in the state have been tested according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. At this point, it is worth noting that the first COVID-19 patient from Washington state was a 35 year old man, who was doing well up until day 9 of his illness when he took a “turn for the worse” and had to be hospitalized according to the chief clinical officer at the hospital where he was treated. It is unclear to me when he was initially tested, but presumably it was after he began showing symptoms as he had recently returned from Wuhan, China. Meanwhile, at least 75 other people in Washington state became sick enough through various methods of exposure to warrant testing. We know that one infected person means an exponential number of others who are infected as well, there are multiple news reports on this.

The State of Arizona is known about as well as the Trump administration for lack of transparency. I am fairly sure county health departments including PCHD, hospitals, and other healthcare providers are being pressured by Governor Ducey to toe the Republican line on this. ADHS and PCHD are also referring people to the CDC website for “up to date” information on COVID-19 which is laughable at best given the information lock down being perpetrated by this administration. As a result of all the obfuscation that is happening on multiple levels, I am inclined to believe these nurses who feel the need to speak out.

I am not in panic mode, but when nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals on the front lines in hospitals are expressing concerns to the press that people are not being tested who should be, we should all be paying attention...............................................

[Girard442]

1. The logic seems to be this:

1. People can be infected with COVID-19 and not show symptoms for a long time (some never, maybe).

2. People without symptoms can be contagious.

3. If we test people without symptoms or obvious connections to someone who has, we're afraid we're going to discover a whole big bunch of new positives.

4. If that should happen, it would reveal to to general public that the containment strategy is defunct and there is no other. That would cause a panic.

5. So....let's test as few people as we can get away with without making it obvious that's the strategy.

[riversedge]

2. Add that this is the #Trump dangerous illogical stategy and he is afraid of adding

to the total numbers affected because it looks bad for HIM! It is always about him!

[LiberalArkie]

4. I wonder if it costs the county to do the PCR or what ever they do with the swabs?

[Maru Kitteh]

3. They may not even HAVE any tests available. 327 million-ish people in the US and

our "surgeon general" let it fly today that we only have 75k tests available for the entire country. No word on how those have been distributed either. That's like one per every 5,000 people in the US, and that's including the tests that have already been done.


ETA: Either way, it's an entirely inexcusable situation.

[DENVERPOPS]

9. I would love to see an accounting

of the amount of tests distributed, BY STATE.

I imagine that that would be very very very interesting.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. This is friggin scary.

We are not hearing or seeing any reports out the Concentration Camps. How many of the ICE and Border Patrol people are carrying,once this hits the Cages,it will get friggin brutal.

[IronLionZion]

6. Thank God we don't ration healthcare in America

because that would be the jackbooted heel of socialism crushing our freedoms and spirit.

They don't have enough test kits? Not enough funding? Insurance not covering it? Why ration it?

It's comforting to claim this is a GOP induced problem but the same thing happened here in the bluest of blue DC where people returning from South Korea, Italy, and other hot zones were denied testing even after showing flu-like symptoms. They were told to self quarantine at home and only come back to the hospital if it gets worse over a few days. Weird. I bet it's frustrating for the nurses and doctors if some administrator or politician is making this decision.

[pnwmom]

7. I know someone in my state who was notified by an airline that he was exposed

by a person sitting behind him. The airline refused to give any details. So he called his doctor, who didn't seem able to help him. Then he called the public health department. They said his fever wasn't high enough to qualify for testing. They didn't tell him to self-quarantine, or warn anybody else. If he didn't have a fever of 100.4 they weren't interested.

So I looked at his county's health dept. website and it says they have ZERO cases under investigation. Of course they don't. And everyone who lives there is living with a false sense of security.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. Got to make Trump look good at all cost

Even at the cost of your life....not his, your life.

At least his base is just as likely to get sick or die from it as the rest of us.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. I wonder if a vulnerable group or doctor's group could take them to court.

I failure of duty and undue risk to the public resulting in increases infections (harm done) could be shown, perhaps there's a basis for a suit.

Otherwise, perhaps an adequate public outcry via public media could get some people fired........

In addition, public health departments have the right and the authority to write their own standards!

[AllyCat]

11. That's how it works in my facility

The patient basically has to be almost dead to get an airborne isolation room.

[mucifer]

13. There are so few isolation rooms and so few ventilators

[AllyCat]

14. We have been assured by management that the 1-3 rooms on each unit

will be just FINE.

[mucifer]

15. Awesome! I can't wait to see how my job as a hospice nurse in a big city will change

[IronLionZion]

12. Gupta examines the lack of coronavirus testing in the US

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/03/07/us-coronavirus-testing-kits-sanjay-gupta-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/coronavirus/

Interesting how South Korea, Japan, and other shithole countries managed to do it but not the exceptionally great USA.