Cabinet Peaks offers monoclonal antibody therapy

Officials with Cabinet Peaks Medical Center have in recent weeks unveiled several new services in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

As of Jan. 18, the center began offering monoclonal antibody therapy, also known as Bamlanivimab, for patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19. The one-time treatment is aimed at jumpstarting the immune system into building antibodies to fight the disease.

The FDA approved the therapy through an emergency use authorization in November. The treatment is intended for adult and pediatric patients at high risk for suffering a severe case of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

CPMC officials said the therapy takes about an hour and is followed by an observation period wherein the patient must remain under the watch of the medical center’s infusion nurse.

The therapy has been heralded as a way to reduce hospitalizations as a result of COVID-19. But it must be administered soon after a patient is diagnosed with the illness.

Medical center staff urged residents with questions about the therapy to contact their primary care providers.

Officials at CPMC also continue to tout the facility’s adoption of The Safetynet Device, an at-home monitoring system for COVID-19 patients. The equipment lets health workers keep tabs on sick patients from home, thus reducing the need for hospitalization.

Staff at CPMC can use the system to keep watch over a patient’s oxygen saturation and it monitors respiration rate as well as heart rate. And patients can input other data, including their temperature and symptoms.

If a patient’s condition worsens, staff can then call them into the hospital or send an ambulance.

To use one of the devices, a patient must mobile device — think smart phone or tablet — and an Internet connection.

Beyond the coronavirus, health workers expect to use Safetynet Device for patients suffering from sleep disorders, post-surgical patients and high-risk newborns, officials said.