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 for the first 14 days of symptoms.

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.

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. Diagnosed with COVID: either clinically, or via a positive test result

AND

2. Symptomatic

AND

3. Aged 18 years or older and at a higher risk from COVID where clinical judgement applies taking into consideration risk factors such as pregnancy, learning disability, caring responsibilities, deprivation, mental health, comorbidities etc.

A light-touch pathway is available for anyone under 65 who has been double vaccinated. The person will be given the option to minimise their contact with the CO@h team during their time on the service and to fully self-manage. If a person opts for this, they will be offered the full safety netting advice and issued with an oximeter and will make contact with the relevant service in the event of deterioration.

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.