Area health providers announced treatment updates as they continue to respond to COVID-19.
 
New Hanover Regional Medical Center has set up a phone-based system that allows clinical staff to check in with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients who are recovering from home. And Wilmington Health is pushing its newly launched Today’s Care+, an urgent care clinic, as a way to help steer people away from emergency rooms.
 
With NHRMC’s COVID Care at Home Tool, “care teams will regularly call patients to assess their health status by asking a series of questions, such as about their temperature, breathing and level of activity, and then review any underlying health conditions,” according to a Wednesday news release from the hospital.
 
The assessment tool will give patients with risk scores – with low, moderate or high-risk categories – and go over their next steps.
 
“If patients require additional care, they will be connected with a provider for a video visit, or they could be instructed to seek emergency care,” the release stated.
 
The tool will be used for existing patients at NHRMC and NHRMC Physician Group practices being monitored because of the disease as well as for patients who do not have a primary care provider after they are discharged from the emergency department or hospital, officials said.
 
“In addition, NHRMC is encouraging practices across the region to adopt the tool to better serve patients,” the release stated.
 
“We hope the use of this tool across the region will help healthcare providers provide consistent monitoring and support to patients in need of early intervention,” Leelee Thames, NHRMC’s chief value officer, said in the release. “Although many patients recovering from COVID-19 may have mild to moderate symptoms and will not require hospitalization, we want to be sure that patients recovering at home are also being well-cared for.”
 
Hospital officials said that community providers can also notify NHRMC about a patient being sent for emergency care and report data on the volume of high-risk patients who might end up requiring hospitalization “to help NHRMC prepare," the release stated, adding that providers interested in getting help to deploy the care model should email [email protected].
 
At Wilmington Health, officials are promoting its recently launched Today’s Care+, a project the medical group was working on before the coronavirus pandemic as a version of urgent care with additional treatment options.
 
Because of those adds, the service can serve as an emergency department alternative, Wilmington Health officials said in a news release Wednesday.

The urgent care clinic is open 8 a.m.-8 p.m. every day including weekends and is located at 1202 Medical Center Drive. Patients can walk in and do not have to already be established with Wilmington Health.
 
The practice “has equipped this particular outpatient urgent care with the ability to handle many of the reasons one would go to the ER without having to go. This clinic can handle about 90% of what is typically happening in the ER,” Wilmington Health Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Hines said in the release.
 
Some examples of those services are to see fractures and sprains, acute orthopedic issues; bronchitis and pneumonia; and others, according to the info from Wilmington Health, which also in the wake of the coronavirus ramped up its Anywhere Virtual Visit for telehealth appointments with patients to decrease the number of people going to its offices.
 
With the Today’s Care+ location, providers also have access to a high complexity laboratory, a CT Scanner, MRI and X-rays.
 
“The more that the ER can be decompressed, the more the hospital will be able to care for the sickest patients,” Hines said.