Recommendations for Providers

Clinical Staffing Support Options for Hospitals & Licensed Long Term Care Facilities

During this time of medical surge in Utah and throughout the world, clinical staff such as nurses and doctors are in short supply and heavily relied on. The Utah COVID-19 Unified Command, through the Utah Department of Health, has been working on clinical staffing mitigation strategies since April 2020 using the framework given to States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Health and Human Services (HHS). We have developed many options to assist hospitals and long term care facilities experiencing clinical staffing shortages, including licensure flexibilities, recruitment efforts and volunteer programs. This page provides an overview of these efforts, with links for more information. If you represent a hospital or licensed long term care facility and need more information on any of these options, please reach out to a member of the Utah COVID-19 Unified Command Team for assistance.

Monoclonal Antibody Therapy

For information on novel Monoclonal Antibody therapy in Utah, click here.

Funding Opportunity Announcement for Skilled Nursing Facilities

 
Given the current medical surge in Utah’s hospitals, there remains a critical need to support hospitals through expedited discharges of COVID positive patients and support of COVID positive patients in congregate settings.
 
As a result of these demands, the Utah Department of Health is providing a funding opportunity to support licensed nursing facilities to establish and maintain dedicated COVID positive units with dedicated staffing and to assist the response in a time of great need. 
 
If you are a skilled nursing facility (providing services per Utah Administrative Rule R432-150), in good standing, and would be willing to establish a designated COVID unit and can demonstrate the ability to safely isolate COVID positive individuals from COVID negative residents in the remainder of the facility, please fill out this application https://forms.gle/uDPaU5ERmExEoNj86. 
 
The application will be open through Sunday August 29th at 11:59 p.m.  
 
Please direct questions to Greg Bateman at gbateman@utah.gov. 
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Surgery and Procedure Guidance

Each hospital and ambulatory surgical center operating in Utah shall follow the color-coded surgery and procedure guidance protocols developed by the Utah Hospital Association in consultation with the Utah Department of Health, titled “Utah Roadmap for Resuming Elective Procedures.”

Elective Procedures Color Code Table

Health districts under green guidance: 

  • Bear River (Box Elder, Cache, Rich counties)
  • Central Utah (Juab, Millard, Piute, Sevier, Wayne, Sanpete counties)
  • Davis County
  • Salt Lake County
  • San Juan County
  • Southeast Utah (Carbon, Emery, Grand counties)
  • Southwest Utah (Garfield, Iron, Kane, Washington, Beaver counties)
  • Summit County
  • Tooele County
  • TriCounty (Daggett, Duchesne, Uintah counties)
  • Utah County
  • Wasatch County
  • Weber-Morgan

Hospitals under yellow guidance:

  • Intermountain Medical Center
  • University of Utah Hospital

If you are a health care provider evaluating a patient for suspected 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and would like to request testing through the Utah Public Health Laboratory, you must follow the criteria in the UDOH HAN document linked below and submit a request using the COVID-19 Test Request Tool linked below. All specimens must be submitted with a completed Utah Public Health Laboratory lab submission form. Specimens that do not meet these criteria will not be tested.

Please refer to the CDC website https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/index.html for other healthcare provider guidance.

COVID-19 Testing Protocol – Standing Order to Pharmacists to Administer COVID-19 Tests

UDOH has issued a standing order authorizing all licensed pharmacists the ablility to administer COVID-19 tests.

The order is posted to the State and Local Orders and Directives page.

Resource Documents

Information and guidance related to long-term care and assisted living facilities can be found on our new long-term care facilities page.