THE TRIAGE PROCESS 
The flow diagram below accompanies the State of California Recommended Strategic Approaches for COVID-19 Response for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness. A local triage protocol that is based on this guidance may be as follows:  

  • Those with severe symptoms - Call 911 and alert EMTs to possible COVID-19 infection.  These symptoms include difficulty in breathing, bluish lips or face, and difficulty in waking. 
     
  • Those who test positive for COVID-19 without severe symptoms, as well as People Under Investigation (PUI), - Refer to isolation or quarantine units.  King County, WA refers to these units as Assessment Center / Recovery Center (AC/RC) and are explained in greater detail here.  
     
  • Those with high risk of complications, including those with chronic health conditions and senior citizens, should be isolated separately. 
     
  • Those presumed to be COVID negative, and at low risk, should be referred to single room occupancy if such options exist or encouraged to shelter in place if they do not.  An Encampment Screening survey should be conducted for any outside living areas where people are encouraged to shelter in place to ensure that basic human needs are being addressed. 
  State of CA Triage Protocol  

THE SCREENING SURVEY
Note that the Health and Wellness screening survey can be modified to meet local needs as necessary.  For example, if no test kits are available, those questions can be removed and the assessment can be shifted to focus on temperatures above 100.4 (indicating a fever) and the presence of a new or worsening cough.

COMMAND CENTER OPERATIONS
Based on the survey results, the new tagging feature within the Command Center can be used to assign tags for vulnerability status, current health condition, and current living situation to support the triage process. Notes can be added to the record and the status of the surveys can be changed to indicate that no further action is required.

The GPS details and contact information captured within the survey help support ongoing communications with the client. All data can be viewed in map or list format or exported as a CSV file to be worked with offline.