IN individual households
only; not nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group
homes, or shelters.
To
access this service, please call the Testing Helpline at 240-777-1755 and be
prepared to answer the following questions.
- Referral category (one
or more of the following):
- Live
in geographic areas highly impacted by COVID-19 (20850, 20874, 20877,
20886, 20901, 20902, 20903, 20904, 20906, or 20910)
- Are
members of population groups disproportionally affected by COVID-19
- Are
homebound or facing significant barriers to accessing community COVID-19
testing
- Have
complex or unique household situations in which home-based COVID-19
testing would be more effective than community COVID-19 testing
- Preferred time window
for home visit
- between
10 am - 1 pm OR 1 pm – 4 pm
- Household Point of
Contact First & Last Name
- Household Point of
Contact Phone Number
- Household Point of Contact
Email Address
- Household Address
- Language Need(s), if
applicable
- # of Adults (18+ years)
in Household
- # of children (0 – 17
yrs.) in Household
- Anything else the Rapid
Response Team should be aware of (special needs; symptomatic, positive or
presumed positive COVID-19 cases to allow team to prepare accordingly;
special directions for getting to the home, etc.)
Montgomery County Rapid Response
Teams, via a contract with Ready Responders (National Capital Region), PC, will
conduct no-cost medical services home visits for COVID-19 testing seven days a
week, as scheduled by Montgomery County Department of Health & Human
Services (DHHS), to improve access to COVID-19 testing and COVID-19
related-medical care for Montgomery County households who:
- Live in geographic areas
highly impacted by COVID-19
- as of
7/9/2020: 20850, 20874, 20877, 20886, 20901, 20902, 20903, 20904, 20906,
20910
- Are members of
population groups disproportionally affected by COVID-19
- Are homebound or facing
significant barriers to accessing community COVID-19 testing
- Have complex or unique
household situations in which home-based COVID-19 testing would be more
effective than community COVID-19 testing
Ready Responders teams consist of a Health Worker and a Human Services Worker who
review and obtain required consent for the medical services home visit from
household members during the visit.
If any household member has insurance, insurance information is
collected to bill for the telemedicine assessment and COVID-19 test. However,
there is no cost to household members for any part of the home visit,
regardless of insurance status.
For each household member who
provides consent, Ready
Responders will
- Conduct a temperature
check and measure vital signs.
- Link to a Ready Responders
medical provider who will conduct a telemedicine assessment.
- The
provider name and medical license number will be given as well as instructions
on how to obtain a copy of the encounter record for telemedicine
services.
- Administer a
self-collected nasal swab COVID-19 test (or a different type of COVID-19
test, if medically needed or a special circumstance) on each household
member present that consents to a test.
- A
County nurse will call with the COVID-19 test result (positive or
negative). State health department staff may also contact
individuals with positive results to provide additional guidance and
conduct contact investigations.
- Conduct a brief human
services assessment and, based on results, offer services of a DHHS human
services navigator to follow-up with them after the visit.
- Emergency/urgent
medical and human services referrals will be provided on-site, such as
- calling
911 for a medical emergency,
- providing
emergency food referrals, or
- immediate
referral to temporary hotel shelter for those who cannot effectively
isolate at home.
Ready Responders have
multilingual language capacity via bilingual staff and access to the County Language
Line.
Ready Responders medical services
home visits collect protected health information under the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Maryland confidentiality laws.
DHHS and Ready Responders cannot disclose information to referring
organizations/programs about the visit including telemedicine assessment
records or testing status/results.