Home Health & Hospice Week

Beware: COVID-19 signs can be confused with the ordinary flu.

Medicare is offering a helping hand on how to figure out who to treat as a suspected COVID-19 case.

Home health and hospice agencies can use these four factors to “identify volunteers, visitors, and patients at risk for having COVID-19 infection,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services offers:

1. International travel within the last 14 days to countries with sustained community transmission. For updated information on affected countries visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html.

2. Signs or symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as a fever, cough, and sore throat.

3. In the last 14 days, has had contact with someone with or under investigation for COVID-19, or are ill with respiratory illness.

4. Residing in a community where community-based spread of COVID-19 is occurring.

Timing is crucial: Agencies should ask about these factors “before or immediately upon arrival to the home,” CMS offers. For inpatient hospices, you should assess the items “before or immediately upon arrival to the inpatient unit.”