All procedures with anesthesia require COVID test

Order standard test for all scheduled patients, regardless!

All patients undergoing procedures with anesthesia at Salem Health continue to require a COVID test, regardless of prior infection or vaccination status.

At this time, please order the standard in-house test for all scheduled patients (collected as outpatient 3-7 days before procedure) and also for those patients in the emergency room or hospital waiting for an add-on procedure (turnaround time ~2 hours).

While we can still perform the point of care test in Prep/Recovery for urgent needs, please do not order the Point of Care (POC) unless the patient needs surgery right away.

The algorithm below shows the current workflow. (Click to enlarge, or view the PDF here.) Please reach out to Dr. Angie Anderson with questions.