Automatic ID Consultation for Inpatients With COVID-19: Point, Counterpoint, and a Single-Center Experience

Cynthia T Nguyen; Gregory Olson; Mai T Pho; Alison K Lew; David Pitrak; Jina Saltzman; Aniruddha Hazra; Kenneth Pursell; Natasha N Pettit

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaa318

Automatic ID Consultation for Inpatients With COVID-19: Point, Counterpoint, and a Single-Center Experience

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Aug 11;7(10):ofaa318. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa318. eCollection 2020 Oct.

Authors

Cynthia T Nguyen¹, Gregory Olson², Mai T Pho², Alison K Lew¹, David Pitrak², Jina Saltzman², Aniruddha Hazra², Kenneth Pursell², Natasha N Pettit¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Abstract

There are many unknowns with regard to COVID-19 clinical management, including the role of Infectious Diseases Consultation (IDC). As hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue, hospitals are assessing how to optimally and efficiently manage COVID-19 inpatients. Typically, primary teams must determine when IDC is appropriate, and ID clinicians provide consultation upon request of the primary team. IDC has been shown to be beneficial for many conditions; however, the impact of IDC for COVID-19 is unknown. Herein, we discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of automatic IDC for COVID-19 inpatients. Important considerations include the quality of care provided, allocation and optimization of resources, and clinician satisfaction. Finally, we describe how automatic IDC changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic at a single academic medical center.

Keywords: COVID-19; infectious diseases; referral and consultation.