QMG Offers COVID-19 Treatment Bamlanivimab

In Decem­ber, Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) became one of the first inde­pen­dent physi­cian groups in the state of Illi­nois to receive dos­es of Bam­lanivimab from the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH).

Bam­lanivimab is an inves­ti­ga­tion­al med­ica­tion grant­ed Emer­gency Use Autho­riza­tion (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA). It is one of the first med­ica­tions for treat­ment of mild to mod­er­ate active COVID-19 patients at high risk for pro­gress­ing to severe COVID-19 or hospitalization.

QMG Inter­im Chief Med­ical Offi­cer Dr. Rick Noble said hav­ing access to lead­ing front­line ther­a­pies for the treat­ment of COVID-19 has sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits for patients and the community.

“Bam­lanivimab treat­ments allow our QMG providers to treat their high-risk patients ear­ly in the dis­ease course, there­fore reduc­ing the pro­gres­sion of the dis­ease and ulti­mate hos­pi­tal­iza­tions. This allows our patients the feel­ing of con­fi­dence that QMG con­tin­ues to pro­vide the finest in cut­ting-edge treat­ments,” he said.

QMG Phar­ma­cist Liz McReynolds said QMG received its first allo­ca­tion of the med­ica­tion on Decem­ber 10, 2020, and suc­cess­ful­ly treat­ed the first patient the next day on Decem­ber 11, 2020. QMG is now able to treat patients 6 days per week with up to 12 patients each day in neg­a­tive pres­sur­ize rooms. In total, 127 patients have been treat­ed at QMG with Bamlanivimab.

She said patients must meet cer­tain cri­te­ria for the treat­ment and it’s not indi­cat­ed for patients that have already pro­gressed to severe COVID-19 or already hospitalized.

“The goal is to treat patients in the mild to mod­er­ate stage, halt­ing and revers­ing dis­ease pro­gres­sion,” she said. ​“We are hon­ored to be iden­ti­fied by the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health as a great alter­na­tive treat­ment site for the tri-state community.”

Patients will be assessed by their health­care provider at QMG and sched­uled for treat­ment if they meet the cri­te­ria. Patients who do not have a QMG health­care provider can sched­ule a tele­health vis­it with a QMG Now (Ambu­la­to­ry Care Cen­ter) provider who can order the med­ica­tion if the patient is deemed to meet the criteria.

IDPH has spe­cif­ic patient cri­te­ria for Bam­lanivimab ther­a­py as such:

1. 12 years and older
2. Weigh at least 40 kg (approx­i­mate­ly 88 lbs)
3. Mild to mod­er­ate active COVID-19
4. Pos­i­tive COVID test
5. 10-day win­dow from onset of symptoms
6. 65 years of age and old­er (no comor­bid­i­ty necessary)
7. Less than 65 years of age (must have med­ical co-mor­bid­i­ty that increas­es the risk of dis­ease progression).

For more infor­ma­tion on Quin­cy Med­ical Group, vis­it quin​cymed​group​.com.