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. 2021 Oct 27:14:3027-3034.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S337258. eCollection 2021.

COVID-19 Screening for Hospitalized Patients: The Role of Expanded Hospital Surveillance in a Low Prevalence Setting

Jen-Yu Hsu  1 , Po-Yu Liu  1 , Chien-Hao Tseng  1 , Chia-Wei Liu  1 , Wan-Ting Yang  1 , Wei-Hsuan Huang  1 , Shu-Yuan Li  1 , Ya-Chun Liao  1 , Ming-Ju Wu  2
Affiliations

COVID-19 Screening for Hospitalized Patients: The Role of Expanded Hospital Surveillance in a Low Prevalence Setting

Jen-Yu Hsu et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious threat to healthcare workers and hospitalized patients. Early detection of COVID-19 cases is essential to control the spread in healthcare facilities. However, real-world data on the screening criteria for hospitalized patients remain scarce. We aimed to explore whether patients with negative results of pre-hospital screening for COVID-19 should be rescreened after admission in a low-prevalence (less than 3% of the world average) setting.

Patients and methods: We retrospectively included patients in central Taiwan who were negative at the first screening but were newly diagnosed with pneumonia or had a body temperature above 38 degrees Celsius during their hospitalization. Each patient might be included as an eligible case several times, and the proportions of cases who were rescreened for COVID-19 and those diagnosed with COVID-19 were calculated. A logistic regression model was constructed to identify factors associated with rescreening. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests were used to confirm the diagnosis of COVID-19.

Results: A total of 3549 cases eligible for COVID-19 rescreening were included. There were 242 cases (6.8%) who received rescreening. In the multivariable analysis, cases aged 75 years or older, those with potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2, or patients visiting specific departments, such as the Cardiovascular Center and Department of Neurology, were more likely to be rescreened. None was diagnosed with COVID-19 after rescreening. There was no known cluster infection outbreak in the hospital or in the local community during the study period and in the following two months.

Conclusion: In Taiwan, a country with a low COVID-19 prevalence, it was deemed safe to rescreen only high-risk hospitalized patients. This strategy was effective and reduced unnecessary costs.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; fever; pneumonia; risk; screen.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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