Cohorted Voluntary Self Quarantine

This guideline applies to frontline healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, med techs, respiratory therapists, radiology techs, and others) who are in front-line emergency medicine roles, working and living in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, and are planning to self-quarantine for the safety of their loved ones.

Learn more »

COVID-19

COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020.

View details »

Purpose

Ensure the health and wellbeing of our emergency care providers and of their families. To maintain an effective force and support a prolonged effort dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

View details »

FAQ

Find Answers Here

View details »

Please refer to this site frequently for general info/links, enrollment, and instructive visualizations.

COVID-19 Quarantine Guidelines

These Cohorted Voluntary Self-Quarantine (CVSQ) guidelines should be seen as an investment in protecting clinical staff and their families. It will be critical to maintain an active workforce of skilled physicians/clinicians for the duration of the pandemic. The goal is to “flatten the curve” through social distancing and prevention/delay of exposure and spread of COVID-19 within our community. The inherent qualities of COVID-19 necessitate that CVSQ be implemented proactively.

Basis for current understanding & assumptions

Unlike in many countries, clinicians in the US do not live on hospital grounds or in subsidized hospital/university housing. Many are trying to create plans for trying to minimize exposure risk to cohabitating family members without much evidence-base from which to find their decisions for minimizing exposure risk. Some clinicians are choosing to self-quarantine in hotels or other solitary situations that have the potential to have negative emotional and psychological consequences that will affect their ability to care for patients during this pandemic.

Background

A Global Pandemic

COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020^[ref]

The Curve

Current scenarios predict a 20-60% infection rate will result in all US hospital beds being overwhelmed by 200% to 700% within two to six months^[ref1,^ref2,^ref3]

Exponential Growth

COVID-19 continues to exhibit exponential growth, the number of reported cases doubling every four days in the continental USA and every eight days globally^[ref1,^ref2]

Effective Workforce

Not having the right safety measures in place to reduce familial transmission is a MAJOR concern for front-line Emergency Department clinicians and staff^[ref1,^ref2,^ref3]

Risk

Risk of transmission within physicians/clinicians’ families will negatively affect their ability (and willingness) to provide essential care

Family Clusters

COVID-19 is most contagious amongst family members and co-habitations within single residences as evidenced by family clusters^[ref]