UNC Health recently announced they will no longer administer COVID-19 tests for walk-in asymptomatic people in their emergency department. This change comes as emergency departments across the country have been greatly affected by a surge of patients from the omicron variant.
UNC Health is following the guidance of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in stopping asymptomatic COVID-19 tests in the emergency department. The new policy applies to the following UNC Health sites: UNC Medical Center, UNC Rex Healthcare, Caldwell UNC Health Care, Chatham Health Care, UNC Rockingham Health Care and Johnson UNC Health Care.
Dr. Abhi Mehrotra is an emergency physician who helps lead the UNC Emergency Department at the Medical Center in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. He said the decision was to help alleviate the additional pressure on the hospital from asymptomatic patients coming only for COVID testing.
“The asymptomatic testing load on top of that was really straining our hospital resources,” Mehrota said. “We wanted to devote the ability to test patients that are one symptomatic and two being admitted to the hospital for potentially other causes.”
Mehrotra said the UNC Health hospitals and emergency departments have been busy since the omicron variant arrived, providing care to both COVID patients and patients with non-COVID related illnesses.
“We normally see an uptick of resource use during this kind of winter season and respiratory season, [as] we call it,” Mehrotra said. “This just added further strain upon that.”
While initially many people turned to the emergency department for COVID-19 testing in the early stages of the pandemic, now there are other community sites available. Since then, Mehrotra said some processes in the UNC Health emergency department have also changed. Everyone whether they’re staff, visiting or a patient is required to be masked. Additionally, anyone coming in with a respiratory issue or a COVID-19 related symptom is separated to a different waiting room.
“Part of [the change] is also to protect folks and to keep asymptomatic patients out of the mix so you’re limited in your exposure,” Mehrotra said. “If you have symptoms and your home antigen test is positive, that’s considered a positive and you should proceed with the isolation guidelines as per the CDC.”
The omicron surge is not just stressing the resources of available rooms, testing and PPE for COVID-19. It’s also stressing the staffing available to help patients.
Dr. Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health, said in an op-ed published by WRAL there have been more than 1,000 workers out across the health care system each day. Burks said, “Early in the pandemic, the crisis was PPE and supplies. Now it is people.”
With all of this, Mehrotra said wait times in the emergency department have been longer than normal. Anyone having an emergency is encouraged to come to the hospital where they will be triaged depending on the acuity of their illness.
For people with symptoms of COVID-19, UNC Health asks them to schedule a test through MY UNC Chart, use the NCDHHS website to find a testing site near them, or request a free at-home test kit from LabCorp.
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