Physician-in-Chief's Message
May 29, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
 
Today, we have 22 patients hospitalized at UNC medical center for COVID. Our pediatric patient is doing well! Outpatient clinic volumes continue to significantly increase and today were above pre-COVID volumes. 

We are also near capacity in Children’s; please contact the Children’s administrator on-call for any concerns. We continue to work on additional space! Thank you for all that you are doing!
UNC COVID Updates
Inpatient Care
  • Our COVID positive patient continues to improve and we anticipate discharge shortly
  • The COVID team appreciates all of the input of the various consultants participating in the care of this patient
  • For questions regarding COVID admissions (patient is confirmed COVID positive and needs inpatient admission), please do not hesitate to call the PED COVID ACUTE or PED COVID ICU pager
  • For all other questions regarding pediatric COVID (testing parameters, PPE, COVID physiology/pathophysiology, therapy/treatment) please reach out to the PED COVID ID pager.
Your COVID-19 Questions & Answers
Response from Tom Belhorn

Q: I have heard mixed messages of if we will have to start wearing eye protection for all patient interactions. Is this true?
 
A: System messaging for the new type of PPE termed Universal Pandemic Precautions (UPP) will be presented on Monday, June 1. Further details will be provided at that time, but the change (basically surgical mask plus specified eye protection) will provide a level of protection to prevent HCP exposures at all times regardless of the patient’s (or parent’s) probability of having COVID-19 or their ability to continuously wear a mask.

The official message will state a mask must be used when the patient is not wearing a mask and you are within 6 feet of the patient. In pediatrics, however, it is often the case that the child is too young to wear a mask (<2yo), won’t reliably keep the mask on, the mask needs to be removed during the exam, or the parent will not keep the mask on for the entire visit.

Therefore, it will be recommended that all staff interacting with patients wear the eye-protection at all times. Please review the messaging sent out Monday, though; Special Airborne Contact Precautions will still be appropriate for several higher risk situations.  
To the UNC Research Community:

Thank you for your patience during the difficult situation we have faced over the last two months. With regard to research, UNC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been geared to protecting our faculty, students, staff, trainees and the larger community. This focus has required the University to minimize the volume of work being conducted on-campus while, at the same time, enabling certain critical research and scholarship to continue.  The University is now prepared to begin the process of increasing the volume of research taking place on campus.
 
While labs and facilities will be permitted to increase activity up to 50% of their capacity, all research and scholarship that can be performed remotely (e.g., via teleworking) should continue to be performed in that fashion.   ..................................................... READ MORE…
Office of Sponsored Research COVID-10 Webinar Series
COVID-19 Impacts on Industry Sponsored Projects
Thursday, June 4, 2020  |  2:00 - 3:00 PM

Presented by Liz Moore, OSR Assistant Director of Industry Contracting and Joonhyung Frederick Cho, Director of Business Development, Industry Relations, this webinar will provide an overview and guidance on working with industry partners during this time of uncertainty. Topics include:
  • Industry Sponsored projects at UNC
  • Service vs Research
  • COVID-19 Impacts
  • Best Practices
  • NCE/Supplemental funding
  • Budget/milestone revisions
  • Q & A
  • What do I do if my project is ending this month?
  • Can I still pay my postdocs/students?
  • What is my next step if I won't be able to meet a milestone?
  • What do I do if my counterpart is no longer with the organization?
  • Is there anything I need to do if I have a new project starting soon?
  • Can you help if my publication review is being delayed?
  • What can I do if an industry sponsor is asking for additional experiments without supplementals?

Registration is not required to participate in this training.
Our Day of Scholarship was wonderful! Thank you to Michelle Hernandez, Eric Zwemer and the CRI Team for organizing and moderating! The presentations were simply outstanding, which is a reflection of our outstanding trainees and mentors.

Next week, Grand Rounds will be given by our multidisciplinary COVID team! Please plan to attend virtually.
 
Gratefully,
919-417-3130 (cell)