Opinion
Pick up an oar - or swab - and row
1Director of Otology, Neurotology and Global Otology, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of Illinois Hospitals, USA
2Director Facial Nerve Services, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of Illinois Hospitals, USA
3Director UI Health Revenue, Patient Accounting, South Marshfield Avenue, USA
4Associate Chief Financial Officer, UI Health Revenue Cycle Services, South Marshfield Avenue, USA
Received Date: April 16, 2020; Published Date: April 28, 2020
Abstract
On the morning of Thursday March 26, 2020 one of us, a facial plastics surgeon at the University of Illinois Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, noted that COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swabs in the US were showing a very high false negative rate. She suggested this may be due to obtaining specimens from the septum and anterior portions of the turbinates, rather than the nasopharynx. In the afternoon, our department formed a swab education team, and another of us, our head neurotologist at the University of Illinois, was assigned as lead. As the two doctors were gathering information, we were approached on Friday, March 27th to also plan how we might help University Health Services accommodate the increase of COVID-19 related employee visits.
