Rhodes College partners with Baptist for COVID-19 testing, tracing for campus
Baptist Memorial Health Care will assist Rhodes College with monitoring and mitigating COVID-19 among its students and staff, the school announced Thursday.
Through the partnership, Baptist will provide COVID-19 prevention, monitoring, testing, tracing and health care services to students, faculty and staff members.
The hospital will also help Rhodes create a health and safety plan.
Services also include a virtual care clinic for positive COVID-19 cases and a testing strategy for returning to campus, according to the release.
“As we began planning for the fall semester, our planning committees quickly identified the need for additional health care resources,” college president Marjorie Hass said in a statement.
“This relationship with Baptist will provide our campus with resources normally found at a large research university with an academic medical center...”
Baptist will help in determining and procuring the personal protective equipment (PPE) needs for campus, and advise on best practices for cleaning.
The college is implementing a COVID-19 monitoring system, which will likely include symptom checks on campus. Rhodes may also use an app for self-reporting, according to the release.
Rhodes said it plans to test all students, faculty and staff before the beginning of the fall and spring semesters. Through the partnership, Baptist will provide testing for people on campus who are symptomatic.
Those tests will be billed to the person’s health insurance, according to the media release.
Shelby County also has free testing services. Many of the locations offer free testing regardless of symptoms. A complete list of all testing sites is available on the City of Memphis’ website.
If members of the Rhodes campus community do test positive for COVID-19, they will have access to a virtual care clinic established through the Baptist partnership.
“...We feel a tremendous responsibility to help our community weather the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Stephen Threlkeld, co-director of Baptist Memorial Hospital-memphis’ infection prevention program, said in a statement. “This partnership is a natural extension of the tremendous investment we have made into educating, treating and protecting people from COVID-19, and we are excited to help Rhodes get back to educating its students.”
The clinic will communicate test results and track symptoms, as well as provide self-care resources. Evaluations for returning to class and enhanced contact tracing will also be part of the clinic, according to the media release.
Students, faculty and staff will also have access to the Baptist network of providers.
Baptist will lead contact tracing efforts on campus, a spokesperson with the college said.
They will also work with county health officials as necessary.
In May, the college said it would begin in-person classes in August if three conditions are met.
In addition to the development and campus buy-in of a health and safety protocol plan, Rhodes’ third reopening condition is the public health conditions in Memphis.
Rhodes said that reopening campus requires that Memphis and Shelby County reach Phase 3 of its reopening plan. Currently, the city is in Phase 2 of that plan.
Memphis and Shelby County remained in Phase 2 last week instead of moving to Phase 3 of its economic reopening. That delay came after hospitalizations rose considerably and the case count continued to rise.
Laura Testino covers education and children’s issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @Ldtestino