1. Sustaining University Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Author
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C. Kevin Chambliss, Mark Brickhouse, Kenneth E. Boyd, Adam Ecklund, Tonya Hudson, Michael P. Muehlenbein, George Nuñez, Jon Allen, Dennis Nolan, Jim Marsh, Tiffany Lowe, Nancy Brickhouse, Meaghann Wheelis, Peter Granick, Matthew Burchett, Niesha Nixon, Bryan W. Brooks, Sharra Hynes, Benjamin J. Ryan, Joshua Been, Michelle Huse, Jason D Cook, Micah Lamb, Lori Fogleman, Sharon Stern, and Walter Sparky Matthews
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Isolation (health care) ,Higher education ,Universities ,Population ,010501 environmental sciences ,0603 philosophy, ethics and religion ,01 natural sciences ,Multidisciplinary approach ,wastewater epidemiology ,Pandemic ,medicine ,Humans ,education ,Pandemics ,Risk management ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Original Research ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Public health ,Social distance ,public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,COVID-19 ,06 humanities and the arts ,Public relations ,higher education ,Quarantine ,060301 applied ethics ,population-based management ,business - Abstract
Colleges and universities around the world engaged diverse strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baylor University, a community of ˜22,700 individuals, was 1 of the institutions which resumed and sustained operations. The key strategy was establishment of multidisciplinary teams to develop mitigation strategies and priority areas for action. This population-based team approach along with implementation of a “Swiss Cheese” risk mitigation model allowed small clusters to be rapidly addressed through testing, surveillance, tracing, isolation, and quarantine. These efforts were supported by health protocols including face coverings, social distancing, and compliance monitoring. As a result, activities were sustained from August 1 to December 8, 2020. There were 62,970 COVID-19 tests conducted with 1435 people testing positive for a positivity rate of 2.28%. A total of 1670 COVID-19 cases were identified with 235 self-reports. The mean number of tests per week was 3500 with approximately 80 of these positive (11/d). More than 60 student tracers were trained with over 120 personnel available to contact trace, at a ratio of 1 per 400 university members. The successes and lessons learned provide a framework and pathway for similar institutions to mitigate the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and sustain operations during a global pandemic.
- Published
- 2021