InterOrganizational practice committee guidance/recommendation for models of care during the novel coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

Objective: The Inter Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC) convened a workgroup to develop guidance on models to provide neuropsychological (NP) care during the COVID-19 pandemic while minimizing risks of novel coronavirus transmission as lockdown orders are lifted and ambulatory clinical services resume.

Method: A collaborative panel of experts from major professional organizations developed provisional guidance for models of neuropsychological practice during the pandemic. The stakeholders included the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Society of Clinical neuropsychology (Division 40) of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc.

Results: This guidance reviews the risks and benefits of conducting NP exams in several ways, including standard in-person, mitigated in-person, in-clinic teleneuropsychology (TeleNP), and in-home TeleNP. Strategies are provided for selecting the most appropriate model for a given patient, taking into account four levels of patient risk stratification, level of community risk and the concept of stepped models of care. Links are provided to governmental agency and professional organization resources as well as an outline and discussion of essential infection mitigation processes based on commonalities across recommendations from diverse federal, state, local, and professional organization recommendations.

Conclusion: This document provides recommendations and guidance with analysis of the risks relative to the benefits of various models of neuropsychological care during the COVID-19 pandemic. These recommendations may be revised as circumstances evolve, with updates posted continuously on the IOPC website (https://iopc.online/).

Keywords:

• Neuropsychological assessment;
• teleneuropsychology;
• coronavirus;
• COVID-19;
• recommendations;
• models of care;
• in-clinic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The Inter Organizational Practice Committee (IOPC) is a committee of the practice chairs of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology/ American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Division 40 of the American Psychological Association, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology, and the American Psychological Association Services, Inc. (APAS) tasked with coordinating advocacy efforts and improving the practice climate for Neuropsychology.

2 It is generally agreed that these three terms are to be interpreted in descending order of immediacy but the boundaries separating the conditions may be unclear and there are multiple frameworks for understanding level of urgency. See for example https://bit.ly/ElectiveRecs