OCH to continue drive-up coronavirus testing, urges responsibility with tests
Drive-through COVID-19 testing will continue at the OCH Regional Medical Center Huxford Clinic, although more emphasis will be placed on conserving test kits for those who truly need them.
Local pulmonologist Dr. Cameron Huxford said his clinic would continue offering the tests starting today. However, he said with the increased number of people being tested and of novel coronavirus cases, test kits were becoming a little harder to keep on hand.
The hospital previously put out a statement on its social media channels stating that drive-through testing at the clinic would end Monday due to a shortage of supplies.
“We’ve been involved with this from the beginning,” Huxford said. “We had a little hiccup today with the supply issue. Our drive-through clinic will be back open tomorrow, and we will be here as long as it takes.”
OCH Quality and Infection Control Manager Savannah
Brown further explained the shortage. She said the situation was not unique to OCH.
“Because (Huxford) wants to provide a quick turnaround time with his lab, he utilizes a reference lab that has about a one-day turnaround time, which we think is wonderful,” Brown said. “But to be able to use that lab, we do have to utilize a testing collection device that we are rationed on, and there’s been a significant uptick in testing in the last couple of weeks, which everyone has seen with the increase in positive numbers as well as tests.”
She said the hospital’s supply of testing collection devices was down, but emphasized that there were still kits on hand. She said most of the issues had arisen from a combination of supply chain difficulties and the increased number of tests, not all of which are medically necessary.
“A lot of the testing that we have been doing at the drive-up clinic has been for people who have returned to work with a doctor’s order,” Brown said.
“It may be that their doctor is ordering it because it’s required for them to return to work. It’s those kinds of tests that really do use up our equipment in an unnecessary fashion.”
Brown spoke in more detail about the criteria for testing, and how the site would work moving forward.
“We do ask that the community be responsible as well,” Brown said. “This is something we’re seeing again and again. It’s possible that companies and local businesses are utilizing old recommendations about return-to work guidance for their employees. The CDC does not recommend even negative tests as a return to work criteria. They recommend a resolution of symptoms and a certain amount of time, typically 14 days from the day of that positive test.”
She said there were enough tests to continue to operate in the meantime as long as the hospital was wise with its resources.
“At no point have we been where we would not test patients in this facility who is ill,” Brown said. “That has not been the case. The drive-through volume has increased exponentially, and that has been a concern for us.”
She said a person with the novel coronavirus would very likely test positive for a significant amount of time even after the abatement of symptoms.
“We do have testing kits available, but we want to use them smartly,” Brown said. “We do have supplies to be able to utilize other reference labs, and we do use those when we need to, but those other reference labs, the turnaround time with those is typically between three and seven days, so to keep that quick turnaround time with the Huxford drive-up clinic, we do have to be responsible with our testing collection kits.”
She also said the Hospital was using a different test with a quicker turnaround for inpatient cases suspected of having the novel coronavirus. The rapid test is capable of giving results in as little as an hour.
“We have an in-house test available to us now, but at this time, we are only going to be utilizing that for inpatients,” Brown said.
Huxford also said the hospital still had beds available in its intensive care unit, despite issues with overcrowding in other parts of the state. OCH has a maximum capacity of 15 COVID-19 patients at any given time.
“I made rounds in there today,” Huxford said. “We have a combination of COVID and NON-COVID patients in the ICU appropriately quarantined from each other, and we have rooms available.”
Brown once again emphasized the importance of responsible testing.
“Anyone who does COVID-19 testing is going to be running into this, and any of our facilities around us that use the same reference lab that gives us very quick turnaround times is also rationed on their collection kits as well,” Brown said.