Children's National Hospital message to DCPS parents
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Anonymous
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DO NOT Bring your healthy kid to us for return to school covid test screening !!
Mass email sent to ALL prior patients for whom CNMC has an email address. Apparently, CNMC is overwhelmed with parents demanding Covid testing for travel and return to school negative test proof: Dear Patients and Families In the last seven days, your Children’s National primary care locations, as well as our emergency departments, have experienced extremely high demand for COVID testing for children in the region. The demand for testing will increase further due to the latest D.C. Public Schools’ direction to have every child tested on January 4, 2022 with an over-the-counter rapid antigen test and report a negative result to return to school. We understand what a stressful and challenging time this is for parents and families. As we continue to commit to the best care for our community, we are reaching out to let you know that we must prioritize its services and testing for children who are ill with possible COVID-19 and need our medical attention. We cannot serve as the test center for children without symptoms who need to get tested because of suspected exposure, return to school requirements, travel and other situations that do not require medical treatment. To help you navigate the current landscape as school reopens, we encourage you to follow these instructions in managing the care of your child: 1.Use over-the-counter rapid antigen tests when children need testing due to mild symptoms easily treated at home. Save visits to the doctor’s office or Emergency Department for situations where your child has more severe symptoms such as trouble breathing or shortness of breath, persistent chest pain or pressure, dehydration (no urine in 8 hours), weakness or difficulty waking up, bluish color to lips, skin or nail beds. 2. Follow your school system’s guidelines with regard to return-to-school after a COVID infection. Some schools, including District of Columbia public schools are distributing over-the-counter rapid antigen tests for this purpose. The CDC’s new rules for shortened periods of isolation after testing positive for COVID do not apply to K-12 schools and childcare centers. 3. Children under the age of 2 require a PCR COVID test administered by a physician or health department, as they are too young for over-the-counter rapid antigen tests. We share this information to help you make decisions to manage your child’s health care needs. If you have not done so, please consider vaccination for your child age 5 and above. If they are eligible, please get a booster when the time is right, as this is particularly important for continued protection from Omicron variant. As always, continue to wear a mask and maintain social distancing. Here are several links to help you understand your local school district and health department guidelines. D.C. Public Schools [url] Montgomery County, MD Public Schools Prince George’s County Public Schools Arlington County, VA Health Department Charles County, MD Health Department Fairfax County, VA Health Department Howard County, MD Health Department Montgomery County, MD Health Department Prince George's County, MD Health Department Washington, D.C., Health Department[/url] |
Anonymous
| Hopefully they sent it to dcps and dc DoH. We need to move past the pcr stage. It's useless if turn around times are long, and there is no need to confirm a positive, symptomatic rapid test. Save the resources for actual need. |
Anonymous
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On a related note, there is this article in The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/covid-test-shortage/621149/ "Many of those queuing up for tests this week have little choice about the matter; negative results can be required for travel or school or access to public venues. But other types of COVID screening—before and after family gatherings, for instance, or while visiting nearby vacation destinations—are optional. It might seem reckless to suggest that people undergo less surveillance; indeed, the standard expert’s take has been the opposite, that we all should screen ourselves as often as possible in order to help reduce community spread. But even with increased testing, we stand little chance of controlling Omicron this winter at the population level. And testing is, for now, a zero-sum game. Each unnecessary swab that you consume means one fewer is available for more important purposes—such as diagnosing a symptomatic infection." "Everyone should do what they can to free testing resources for those with symptoms. We should also try to allocate tests based on underlying risks. The unvaccinated are, overall, most in danger of being hospitalized and dying from the virus, so they are also, overall, the people who benefit the most from having those around them screened for infection. Social bubbles being what they are, I suspect that many people with arsenals of at-home tests spend much of their personal time around other vaccinated and relatively low-risk individuals, making the public-health benefits of their personal screening programs marginal at best." |
Anonymous
| Sorry, of all the reasons not to test, reserving capacity for the unvaccinated is at the bottom of my list |
Anonymous
You don't have sympathy even for babies and other kids too young to be vaccinated, including those with other serious health conditions? Because that's who Children's is trying to reserve tests for. |
Anonymous
| Where are the tests that Biden Admin was promising? |
Anonymous
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Good. This is about people who don’t understand their demand for convenience and a certain level of service, during a pandemic, is unreasonable. Stop! The medical community is in crisis.
If you need a test, there are lots of ways to get a rapid test at this point. If you need a PCR, go stand in line at a firehouse or curative kiosk like the rest of us do. If your child is healthy, stop dragging them to the pediatrician or the hospital for everything. Just stop. |
Anonymous
Exactly what I thought when I got this email, after I got over the shock of people seeking convenience testing at Childrens (or their pediatrician) to begin with. |
Anonymous
Um, everywhere? We have had no trouble getting free at home rapid tests from the library and school, PCR tests from the library and curative. |
Anonymous
well we’ve observed on our many trips (child with severe condition) many people use children’s ER like a PCP. |
Anonymous
Are you in DC? That’s not the case across the river. |
Anonymous
| If you need tests just walk up to a DCPS school and say you have a kid in DCPS. Do that at two different schools and you have four free rapid tests. |
Anonymous
+1 This has been the case for a very long time. It’s a real issue with our healthcare system. |
Anonymous
This is something that the poor do. That's not a judgment. It's basically because there aren't reliable PCPs in their areas, or they don't have access to one. This is well-known in public health literature, btw, I'm not just saying this about DC. |
Anonymous
Yes, sadly that’s precisely why (no judgement here either). So I’m not shocked people used it for convenience testing. I also don’t blame the hospital for prioritizing the most critical patients. |