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Seattle Children’s has been able to significantly reduce the referral backlog that has slowed our intake process over the last two months. We are now taking 24 to 36 hours to process incoming referrals (which means to finalize them and put them in the queue) – down from 2 to 3 days earlier in January. They are triaged and scheduled after that. The backlog in referrals originated with unanticipated staffing shortages in our clinical intake team in December. We are continuing to train and onboard new staff to ensure prompt attention to all provider referrals. Thank you for your patience.
Due to a shortage of testing reagents combined with a surge in demand for testing, we must temporarily decrease the number of COVID-19 tests administered at Seattle Children’s. We have temporarily suspended COVID-19 testing for the community. Effective immediately, we are not accepting referrals from primary care providers for COVID-19 testing.
Authors: Natalie Rosenwasser and Dan (Yongdong) Zhao
Related Reading: When Bone Pain Isn’t What You Think: Recognizing CRMO in Primary Care, Provider News, December 2021.
Seattle Children’s system-wide number of positive COVID-19 swabs has been approximately doubling every week for the past four weeks and is about three times higher than any other time in the pandemic. Not only are the raw numbers increasing but our positivity rate has gone from about 2% a few weeks ago to nearly 20% last week.
On December 9, 2021, Seattle Children’s released the first quarterly progress report on our Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan. The quarterly report is part of Seattle Children’s commitment to accountability as we systematically dismantle racism within the organization. There are eight recommendations in the action plan, each with action working towards a desired outcome.
By Elizabeth Dimarco, On the Pulse, December 2021
When the worst pandemic of the century struck, a group of nine Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s scientists teamed up with researchers from Rockefeller University to innovate powerful tools for diagnosing and treating a virus that has claimed over 5 million lives.
Seattle Children's complies with applicable federal and other civil rights laws and does not discriminate, exclude people or treat them differently based on race, color, religion (creed), sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin (ancestry), age, disability, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Financial assistance for medically necessary services is based on family income and hospital resources and is provided to children under age 21 whose primary residence is in Washington, Alaska, Montana or Idaho.
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