Thread by @sam_halman

Unrelated to the measures announced in ON today, a few words about ‘incidental Covid’ that I think we need to be said. A 🧵:
1. I do think having stats/data about which patients come to hospital BECAUSE of Covid rather than WITH Covid would be helpful and important.

2. You are MUCH more likely to admitted BECAUSE of Covid than with Covid if you are unvaccinated. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. #ON needs to prioritize this ASAP.

3. If you ‘incidentally’ are found to have COVID on a discharge swab after being admitted for something else, your room neighbor probably has it. And your unit will have someone else. And then your unit is on outbreak. Omicron is really catchy.

4. When a unit is on outbreak, we don’t admit to that unit. Which means that more people, incidentally, spend more days in ED waiting for a bed. And then ED can’t see the new ppl waiting. And people get reconditioned lying on stretchers for 5 days. Incidentally, that’s bad.

5. When you ‘incidentally’ have covid and you’re ready to be dc’d from your alternate dx (e.g cellulitis, wound issue) - I can’t get you home care. Incidentally, many LHIN workers also have ‘mild’ covid and they are short staffed so can’t risk going into your + home. So u stay.

6. When you incidentally have covid, I can’t send you back your RH or LTC because they don’t have the staff to make sure that you stay isolated and are cared for without risking others. So you stay. Even if you’re not ‘covid sick’

7. When you incidentally have covid, you get transferred to a Covid unit where the nurse may not specialize in your specific issue (e.g a medical nurse looking after a surgical issue). But they try their best.

8. When you incidentally have covid, you are likely to have had community exposures unknowingly. Not your fault. But that person now has to isolate. That person may be a HCW who now can’t go to work. And now we have less ppl to look after those incidentally stuck in hospital.

9. Is it better to have incidental Covid than be ‘covid sick’? 100%. But let’s stop saying that ‘incidental Covid’ does not have consequences on the system.