Risk Management

ROP and COVID-19

OMIC has received a number of calls about how to manage ROP screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the recommendations from the OMIC ROP Task Force. As always, use your professional judgment to determine the best way to proceed with any particular patient or situation.

• Consider ROP care as urgent and continue to provide it.
• Follow the usual guidelines in the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Ophthalmology Policy Statement (1) on who should be screened, timing and frequency of follow-up exams, and criteria for ending ROP screening.
• Provide care in your office, with as little exposure as possible from other patients, for infants already discharged from the NICU.
• Implement CDC recommendations and those of your local health department on social distancing and personal protective equipment.

Here is a link to the AAO’s ophthalmic-specific guidance on this: https://www.aao.org/headline/alert-important-coronavirus-context.

You may access the ROP Safety Net at http://www.omic.com/rop-safety-net/.

OMIC policyholders are encouraged to use our confidential Hotline. The fastest way to reach us is to contact our confidential Risk Management Hotline by mailing riskmanagement@omic.com or calling 800-562-6642, option 4.

(1) “Screening Examination of Premature Infants for Retinopathy of Prematurity.” Policy Statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Ophthalmology, the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Originally issued in 1997 and updated in 2001, 2005, and 2006; current version published in Pediatrics (Volume 131, Number 1, 2013, at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/189.