Physician-in-Chief's Message
April 24, 2020
Dear Colleagues,

Our teams continue to work hard to provide outstanding care for the children and families at UNC Children’s. Today, there are 26 patients with COVID hospitalized at the main medical center.  On a positive note, 130 patients with COVID have been successfully discharged across the entire UNC Health system.

We are successfully reaching out patients through telehealth. The incredible increase in the use of telehealth is improving access across the state.
UNC COVID Updates
Inpatient Care
  • We only have one COIVD+ pediatric patient in-house currently - the patient is doing well.
  • We are working on creating additional spaces on 7 CH to offload the NCCC. Thanks to all for making that happen. We expect to go-live within the next week. 
Ambulatory Care
  • Thank you for all you are doing to help our patients be seen through virtual visits! We are back to 75% of our usual patient capacity in specialty clinics.  
  • WebEx teams and Doximity are approved alternatives to myChart-American Well. We are standardizing processes to uses these platforms and will have more information next week.
  • It is amazing how much has changed in a little over a month! So Kudos to all of you for adapting and continuing to provide excellent care for the children of North Carolina
Your COVID-19 Questions & Answers
Response from Tom Belhorn

Q: I was just told that patients with COVID-19 can present with only a headache. Will that alone be listed as testing criteria?
 
A: As more data becomes available on the clinical presentation of COVID-19, the CDC (and other agencies) update information on presentation and management. The CDC now lists the following as reported symptoms associated with the disease: fever, cough, shortness of breath / difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and new loss of taste or smell. The initial presentation is often (but not always) with several of these signs / symptoms. We also know that children can often be asymptomatic, plus the signs / symptoms of GI disease (vomiting, diarrhea) and other presentations in addition to the above are possible. A headache with no other symptoms does present a challenge as so many disease processes can present with headache. On the other hand, continued shaking chills is more concerning for infection. As the number of non-COVID respiratory viruses is now very low in the community, any indications of acute infection should raise the possibility of COVID-19. Right at this moment headache alone is not listed as a criteria for testing, but this may change - official testing criteria at UNC continue to evolve as we gain more data, and current criteria will be posted on our websites. We also are looking forward to increased availability of supplies and reagents allowing more widespread testing.
I would like to thank all of you for your spirit of cooperation and collegiality as we navigate these uncertain waters.
 
With gratitude,
919-417-3130 (cell)