COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Centre

PCR testing is recommended for individuals if they belong to the following groups:

• Symptomatic people who fall into one of the following groups:
  • Hospitalized patients
  • Patients in Emergency Departments, at the discretion of the treating clinician
  • Patient-facing health care workers and their household members
  • Staff, residents, essential care providers, and visitors in hospitals and congregate living settings, including long-term care, retirement homes, First Nation elder care lodges, group homes, shelters, hospices, temporary foreign worker settings, and correctional institutions and their household members
  • Outpatients for whom COVID-19 treatment is being considered
  • Underhoused or homeless
  • pregnant
  • a first responder, including firefighters, police and paramedics
  • elementary and secondary students and education staff who have received a PCR self-collection kit through their school
• People who are from First Nation, Inuit, and Métis communities and their household members
• Individuals travelling into these communities for work
• People on admission/transfer to or from hospital or congregate living setting
• High-risk contacts and asymptomatic/symptomatic people in the context of confirmed or suspected outbreaks in high-risk settings, including hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes, other congregate living settings and institutions, and other settings as directed by the local public health unit
• Individuals, and one accompanying caregiver, with written prior approval for out-of-country medical services from the General Manager, OHIP
• Asymptomatic testing in hospital, long-term care, retirement homes and other congregate living settings and Institutions as per provincial guidance and/or Directives

HSN may decline requests for the COVID-19 PCR tests that are not part of these provincial recommendations.

Clinical assessments test and provide treatment options for the individuals who know or suspect they have COVID-19 if they:

• have been directed by your primary care provider or another health care professional, or
• have been directed by your primary care provider or another health care professional, or- are unable to safely monitor your symptoms at home, or
• are at higher risk of severe illness, including:
  • immunocompromised individuals aged 18 and over, regardless of vaccine status
  • unvaccinated individuals aged 60 and over
  • unvaccinated First Nations, Inuit, and Métis individuals aged 50 and over
  • unvaccinated individuals aged 50 and over with one or more risk factors

You should bring a list of your medications and any important medical conditions to your assessment.

If you have one or more of the following symptoms, you should immediately call 911 or go to the emergency department:

• severe difficulty breathing (struggling for each breath, can only speak in single words)
• severe chest pain (constant tightness or crushing sensation)
• feeling confused or unsure of where you are- losing consciousness

Health Sciences North is providing outpatient treatments for the early treatment of COVID-19. Once an assessment has been completed, a treatment plan will be recommended to individuals by the COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Centre staff.

Treatments are for outpatients with COVID-19 who have a referral from either their personal care physician or a physician from the HSN COVID-19 Assessment Centre and are at high-risk of severe illness.