Background: The COVID-19 virtual ward was created to provide care for people at home with COVID-19. Only a small proportion required hospital admission during their care. Given this was a new model of care, little was known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients requiring admission to hospital from the virtual ward platform. Aim: A retrospective observational study with the aim to characterise hospital admission volume, patient epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcome form a virtual ward in the setting of an omicron BA.1 and BA.2 outbreak. Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed for all virtual ward patients admitted from 1st January 2022 to 25th March 2022. Patients had to be at least 16 years old to be included. Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data was reviewed on all patients who required admission to hospital. This was analysed to describe this patient cohort. Results: A total of 7021 patients were cared for on the virtual ward over the study period with 473 referred to hospital for assessment. Twenty-six (0.4%) patients were admitted to hospital during their care on the ward. Twenty-two (84.6%) admissions were COVID-19 related. Fifty three percent of the hospitalised patients were fully vaccinated, and 11 had received prior therapeutics for COVID-19 in the community. There was one ICU admission, and one in-hospital mortality. Shortness of breath was the most common reason for escalation to hospital. Chest pain was the second most common reason and the most common diagnosis after investigation was non-cardiac chest pain that spontaneously resolved. Conclusions: Few patients required admission from the virtual ward in the setting of the omicron variant (BA.1, BA.2) as a direct result of COVID-19 disease and virtual ward care. Shortness of breath and chest pain were the most common symptoms driving further clinical care.

Background: The COVID-19 virtual ward was created to provide care for people at home with COVID-19. Given this was a new model of care, little was known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients requiring admission to hospital from the virtual ward platform.The aims were to characterise hospital admission volume, patient epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and outcome from a virtual ward in the setting of an Omicron (BA.1, BA.2) outbreak.Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed for all virtual ward patients admitted from 1st January 2022 to 25th March 2022 (over 16 years old).Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data was reviewed on all patients who required hospital admission.Results: A total of 7021 patients were cared for on the virtual ward over the study period with 473 referred to hospital for assessment. Twenty-six (0.4%) patients were admitted to hospital during their care on the ward. Twenty-two (84.6%) admissions were COVID-19 related. Fifty three percent of the hospitalised patients were fully vaccinated and 11 had received prior therapeutics for COVID-19. Shortness of breath was the most common reason for escalation to hospital. Chest pain was the second most common reason and the most common diagnosis after investigation was non-cardiac chest pain.Conclusions: Few patients required admission from the virtual ward in the setting of the Omicron variant (BA.1, BA.2) as a direct result of COVID-19 disease and virtual ward care. Shortness of breath and chest pain were the most common symptoms driving further clinical care.

Introduction Telehealth and remote monitoring of patients with mild COVID19 infection have developed rapidly in response to the pandemic. Many healthcare systems have embraced telehealth for remote clinical monitoring and pulse oximetry for enhanced monitoring. Methods The experience of a large healthcare centre's COVID Virtual Ward was reviewed retrospectively with a particular focus on evaluating the effectiveness, safety and utility of finger pulse oximetry within the home. Data from a 2 month period in early 2022 during a BA1 Omicron wave was retrospectively reviewed. 551 high risk patients were issued with pulse oximeters for monitoring oxygen saturations within their home. All patients received daily clinical review via telephone by a nurse or doctor. The group was highly vaccinated with only 6.4 percent of the cohort unvaccinated. Oximeters were promptly delivered via courier service across a vast geographical area. Results Pulse oximetry was well utilised by almost all patients. Only 2.7 percent of the cohort demonstrated resting oxygen saturations of less than 94 percent during their Virtual Ward admission. 91 percent of patients reporting dyspnoea were able to be safely managed without escalation to an emergency department due to reassuring clinical and oximetry assessment. Home oxygen saturations correlated well with saturations recorded within the ED, with no patients found to have lower saturations compared with home saturations. Discussion Within a high risk population experiencing COVID19 infection, pulse oximetry was a useful tool in clinical assessment, correlated well with hospital based pulse oximetry and allowed a substantial reduction in COVID19 related ED presentations.

Introduction Telehealth and remote monitoring of patients of patients with mild COVID-19 infection have developed rapidly in response to the pandemic. Many healthcare systems have embraced telehealth for remote clinical monitoring and pulse oximetry for enhanced monitoring. Methods The experience of a large healthcare centre’s COVID Virtual Ward was reviewed retrospectively with a particular focus on evaluating the effectiveness, safety and utility of finger pulse oximetry within the home. Data from a 2 month period in early 2022 during a BA1 Omicron wave was retrospectively reviewed. 551 high risk patients were issued with pulse oximeters for monitoring oxygen saturations within their home. All patients received daily clinical review via telephone by a nurse or doctor. The group was highly vaccinated with only 6.4% of the cohort unvaccinated. Oximeters were promptly delivered via a courier service across a vast geographical area. Results Pulse oximetry was well utilised by most patients. Only 2.7% of the cohort demonstrated resting oxygen saturations of <94% during their Virtual Ward admission. Most patients reporting dyspnoea were able to be safely managed without escalation to an emergency department due to reassuring clinical and oximetry assessment. Home oxygen saturations correlated well with saturations recorded within the ED, with no patients found to have lower saturations compared with home saturations. Discussion Within a high risk population experiencing COVID-19 infection, pulse oximetry was a useful tool in clinical assessment and allowed a substantial reduction in COVID-19 related ED presentations.