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In December 2020, UVA Health introduced protocols for pre-operative COVID testing for all elective procedures in the main operating room and Outpatient Surgery Center (OPSC) to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients while protecting our team members. As vaccination rates increase and the day-to-day COVID case trends continue to improve statewide, UVA Health plans to stop pre-procedural testing of asymptomatic patients beginning Monday, June 13.

At this time, the need for pre-procedural COVD testing for asymptomatic patients will be determined by the attending physician (or designee) with discussion and input from the patient or guardian and based on the patient’s medical history and the type of surgery/procedure scheduled.

Attending physicians (or designees) should review all patients scheduled for surgery to identify who will need asymptomatic pre-procedure COVID testing (see standard work and the Epic tip sheet).

• If asymptomatic testing is needed, the surgery/procedure team will enter the asymptomatic pre-procedural COVID test into Epic.
• Access teams will then schedule the patient for testing.
• Results will be available to the surgery/procedure team via Epic
• If a positive test result is returned, the surgery/procedure team will use this information to determine if the surgery/procedure needs to be rescheduled.  
• For patients already scheduled to undergo pre-procedural testing, if the attending physician (or designee) decides testing is not needed prior to a patient’s surgery/procedure, they should discontinue the testing order.
• Schedulers (or their designees) will call the patients to inform them of this change and then:
  • Cancel the patient, if they are on the UVA PREPROC ASYMTM TC schedule
  • Inform the patient to cancel their appointment, if testing at an alternative location
• Patients who become symptomatic before their procedure should contact their physician (or designee)
• Patients who will occupy an inpatient bed following a surgery/procedure will be tested for COVID while in the operating room regardless of the previous asymptotic Pre-Procedural COVID testing results or vaccination status. The only exception is for patients who have a documented positive COVID PCR test within the last 120 days.
• All Pre-Procedure COVID referral and Lab testing orders should be placed by the physician (or designee) as needed. The current Pre-Procedure COVID referral and Lab testing protocol orders will be discontinued.*

Please share this information and new standard work with your clinic teams.   

Thank you for your ongoing dedication to our patients and communities, and for your partnership as we adjust our protocols to provide the highest quality care for all.

Sincerely,

Reid Adams, MD, FACS
Chief Medical Officer

*Updated