The Impact of Systematic Safety Precautions on COVID-19 Risk Exposure and Transmission Rates in Outpatient Healthcare Workers

• Published in: Reviews in urology Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 93 - 101
• Main Authors: Kapoor, Deepak A, Latino, Kathleen, Hodes, Gillian, Anderson, Ann E, Anderson, Jonathan, Cognetti, Marcus, Patel, Chiraag
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MedReviews, LLC 01.01.2020
• Subjects: Original Research
• ISSN: 1523-6161; 2153-8182

We evaluated the impact of safety protocols, including rapid testing and contact tracing, on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk exposure and transmission rates amongst healthcare workers in the outpatient care setting. Over an 11-week period, a total of 254 employees representing 38% of our total workforce had potential COVID-19 exposure and underwent voluntary COVID-19 testing. Data was stratified based on severity of risk exposure and job description. During this period, the probability of a COVID exposure being high risk decreased in Administrative (−93.0%; P < 0.01) and Clinical (−77.0%; P < 0.01) staff; simultaneously, viral transmission rates declined in Administrative (−73.4%; P = 0.03) and Clinical (−69.9%; P = 0.04) staff as well. Systematic safety protocols effectively reduce exposure risk and transmission rates in outpatient healthcare workers and should be ubiquitously adopted.