COVID-19 Oximetry @ home

Scope

For patients who have been assessed and have symptoms of the COVID-19 virus and referred to the COVID Oximetry@home team to enable the team to monitor the patient's condition closely until they are well again.

Out of Scope

Access to this service should be through shared decision making.

Some patients will not be for monitoring by this team:

If their TEP form states they do not want to go to hospital.
If the patient uses Home Oxygen.
If the patient has lower than typical saturations due to underlying lung pathology AND their usual sats are NOT known. In this case local monitoring by the practice or community respiratory team is encouraged. If their usual sats are known, the CO@h team can apply the national thresholds for escalation and they can be referred. This is detailed on the referral form.
North Devon District Hospital and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital provide an Oximetry follow-up service for patients on discharge from the hospital, and therefore these patients will not be referred to the central CO@h team.

Referral

Referral Criteria

CO@h is a service suitable for adult patients more likely to experience worsening or life-threatening silent hypoxia. The service provides additional support to those patients who are assessed as well enough to be managing their symptoms at home. Therefore, you should only refer patients who you feel meet these criteria. If you are referring from a secondary care setting, the patient must be medically fit for discharge.

You should refer patient to the CO@h team at if they are:

1. A diagnosed with COVID: either clinically, or via a positive test result

AND

2. Symptomatic

AND EITHER

3. Aged 65 years or older

4. Under 65 years and deemed to be clinically vulnerable to COVID. The clinically vulnerable to COVID list can be used as a guide but clinical judgement should apply and take into account multiple additional COVID risk factors.

It is not recommended that systems extend the offer to a wider cohort than the above definition, given it seems unlikely to result in sufficient patient benefit. The national support offer, including pulse oximeter supply, is strictly limited to this defined cohort.

COVID Oximetry at Home referral guide

How do I refer to the CO@h team?

Once you have identified that the patient would benefit from accessing the CO@h service,

to help the CO@h team triage and admit them into the service quickly, please make sure

you have access to the following information:

patient details (including local contact e.g. a neighbour, carer, relative and telephone number)
safety netting advice provided to the patient
current ‘baseline’ oxygen saturations*

*if you are not able to take baseline saturations (e.g. you are speaking with the patient remotely) you can indicate this on the referral form and the CO@h team will arrange for a volunteer to deliver an oximeter to the patient who will take their own baseline. However, if you have any concerns about the patient’s ability to do this, you should exercise your clinical judgement and arrange to see the patient to undertake this.

Once you have this information and please contact the CO@h team via this our online referral form – click here. The link can also be found below.

You can contact them with any queries by calling 01626 204950 or emailing d-ccg.drss-oximetry@nhs.net

Referrals can be made by primary, community and secondary care clinicians, 111 CCAS and the ambulance service.

Referral Form

COVID Oximetry @ Home Referral Form

Supporting Information

GP Information

COVID Oximetry at Home referral guide

Devon COVID Oximetry@home (CO@h) - Oximeter protocol

Staff Information Pack

Patients who reside in Care Homes information - Care Home staff and other supporting services.

Patient Information

Patient information leaflet

Pathway Group

Publication date: December 2020

Last updated: 26-02-2021

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