June 11, 2020
We are pleased to announce the CCI is re-opening our outpatient clinics and inpatient pods in support of clinical research visits. We will be following current BWH research guidance, which states that all visits and visit procedures that can reasonably continue to be conducted remotely should not be scheduled as onsite or in-person visits. Only procedures that require onsite/in-person interventions or interactions should be conducted onsite. Research visits will be allowed for all IRB and CCI approved research including both therapeutic and healthy volunteer research activities. Please make sure that any BWH staff that are coming onsite have been approved through the BWH’s Ramp Up application for personnel access (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap/surveys/?s=HXDNC8KYM3 ).
Reopening Schedule: The CTH and CTC are ready for visits. We are phasing staff returning to our clinic from re-deployments and work from home situations. Visit availability may be limited in the next couple of weeks until all staff are returned to operations. Our inpatient pods (both 9A&B) will be open for scheduling starting 6/15. Our Metabolic Kitchen will open for visits June 22.
| June 15: open for visits | June 15: open for visits | June 22: open for visits | June 15: open for scheduling | June 22: open for visits |
| Clinical Trials Hub (CTH) Hale Building for Transformative Medicine (Suite 3040) 60 Fenwood Road Boston, MA 02115 Hours: 7:30am-4:00pm, Weekdays Walk in hours (starting 7/6): 8:00a-2:00p Phone: 617-732-7791 | Clinical Trials Center (CTC) Peter Bent Brigham (PBB-A4) 15 Francis Street Boston, MA 02115 Hours: 7:00am-6:00pm, Weekdays Phone: 617-732-8027 | Ambulatory Clinical Center (ACC) Richardson Fuller Building (RFB-3) 221 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02115 Hours: 7:30am-4:00pm, Weekdays Phone: 617-732-6860 | Tower 9AB Inpatient Unit 75 Francis Street Boston, MA 02115 Hours: Weekdays and Weekends, 24 hours Phone: 617-732-7765 | CCI Metabolic Kitchen 75 Francis Street Boston, MA 02115 Phone: 617-732-7783 |
CCI clinics will operate in accordance with BWH clinical ambulatory and inpatient guidance as well as guidance from Research Administration. This guidance, and subsequently CCI operations, are expected to change with events and probably on short notice. We will do our best to announce changes as soon as possible but advise all PIs and study teams to be flexible and responsive so we can collectively ensure safety and maintain compliance required for research operations to be allowed to continue. Thank you in advance for working with us to make this transition as smooth as possible in these challenging circumstances.
Here are a few updates to CCI operations that you should be familiar with prior to scheduling visits.
Outpatient
- Screening: All subjects should be screened by the study team for Infectious Disease within 24 hours prior to visits at BWH. Please refer to the most recent BWH Ambulatory Infectious Disease Screening guide. Here is the link for May 15, 2020 version: BH Ambulatory Infectious Disease Screening. Screening will be conducted at some hospital entrances. CCI front desk will screen subjects, regardless of prior screening, upon arrival per ambulatory guidance. Please advise subjects that screening will occur several times. Although potentially inconvenient, this precaution is in place for safety of all persons in the clinic space. All staff and research participants are required to wear BWH provided face masks.
- Check-In: Study coordinators and subjects should arrive on-time for visits. CCI front desk staff will screen participants and direct each to the exam room as soon as possible to reduce personal interactions.
- Exam rooms, waiting rooms, elevators, and other spaces will be marked with social distancing recommendations (maximum capacity, foot traffic flow, “do-not-use” equipment). Please observe and follow all recommended social distance practices in the clinic.
- Scheduling: Our traditional scheduling process remains the best method to schedule a visit. If you find difficulty scheduling visits, please submit an overbook and reach out to us at BWHschedulingcci@bwh.harvard.edu.
- Room Sanitization: Per existing policy, study teams remain responsible for cleaning rooms after use. We will post cleaning checklists and provide cleaning supplies in each exam room. At the end of each visit, the study coordinator should use the checklist to clean the exam room and sign the cleaning log that will be posted in the exam room. If you need time added to your templates for cleaning, please submit the request to CCI@bwh.harvard.edu. If CCI staff observe that a room was not cleaned, or the cleaning was not logged, the CCI staff member will clean the room and adjust visit check out times to account for CCI staff room cleaning time.
- If your visit will include aerosol-generating procedures, please contact us at 617-732-8750 prior to scheduling.
- Subjects should bring minimal personal items to clinical visits to limit exposure.
Inpatient
- All inpatients will need to be COVID tested prior to their admission. We are still working out the detail on how that would occur.
- We will follow BWH inpatient policies. This includes all BWH staff using BWH mandated masks and participants wearing masks when staff are in the room.
- We are also working out the details for any aerosol-generating procedures in the inpatient setting.
- Please try schedule through Scheduler, as is standard practice. If you find difficulty scheduling visits, please submit an overbook. We do have some staff that are training off site for the next several weeks.
Our goal in this re-opening phase is to help research move forward while keeping staff and subjects safe. Inconvenient processes and unexpected challenges will undoubtably emerge as we implement new guidance and safety measures. We look forward to working together to tackle the challenges and enable new approaches to research in these uncertain times.