Nearly 3,000 high-risk COVID-19 patients have received a monoclonal antibody therapy at RWJBarnabas Health since November, the West Orange, N.J.-based system said Feb. 3.
The treatment program is the largest of its kind in New Jersey, spanning RWJBarnabas Health's 11 hospitals, and has a 95 percent success rate.
"Everything we've done over the last 10 months has been driven by two priorities," Christopher Freer, DO, the system's senior vice president for emergency and hospitalist medicine, said in a news release. "One, improve outcomes for the patients already in our care and two, preserve resources as much as possible for the next person coming through our doors. This treatment accomplishes both."
Patients who test positive for COVID-19 and are at high risk of developing a severe infection are eligible to receive the treatment via IV at one of RWJBarnabas' emergency rooms. After the one-hour treatment and a one-hour observation period, patients are sent home and monitored via virtual check-ins.