In this rapidly changing environment of management of COVID-19, maintaining patient and staff safety is of utmost importance. In an effort to efficiently treat patients and protect all healthcare workers, UW Medicine has established guidelines for testing prior to aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs). Specifically, patients (with or without symptoms of acute respiratory infection) who are undergoing an actual or potential AGP (e.g., intubation, extubation, transesophageal echocardiography, endoscopy, etc.) should be tested whenever possible prior to the procedure.
For patients undergoing same-day surgery or outpatient procedures, testing should be performed within 72 hours of the planned procedure. If testing is truly not possible, a rapid test may be considered on day of surgery, but this availability is extremely limited, will lead to delays in non-emergent cases, and is reserved for urgent or extenuating circumstances.
For more details, please review the following documents on our UW Medicine COVID-19 website:
