by Emily Nelson, University News Serivce
Bradley Manning, MD, and Andrew Bryant, MD, normally manage the care of patients who are in the hospital, but these days they are also making virtual house calls. As COVID-19 reached the United States, it became clear there would be a need to closely monitor people who tested positive for the disease but, because the infection is so contagious, keep those patients at home unless more intensive treatment became necessary.
To achieve this, the two clinical assistant professors of internal medicine and hospitalists with UI Health Care helped develop a program that provides direct daily care and support to non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The multidisciplinary Home Treatment Team (HTT) at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics includes nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and support staff who use telemedicine to monitor and care for these patients as they recover at home.
“It’s really difficult for these patients,” Bryant says. “They are sitting at home feeling isolated. They are scared and worried no one is watching. To have a physician or nurse check in as frequently as they have been has helped put our patients more at ease and reassured them that we are monitoring and caring for them.”