South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Healthy or not: One doctor, 12 test sites, delayed results
Contractors hired by Florida for 12 test sites have taken days — even weeks — to give thousands of people their coronavirus results.
The state said Friday it has resolved the problem, but that doesn’t explain why many Floridians have endured aggravation for at least two months trying to get their test results — and why a pediatrician in Hallandale Beach was entrusted with handling thousands of notification phone calls a day.
People swabbed at the sites throughout the state, including Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale and the Youth Fairgrounds at Florida International University, were given a phone number to call Eric Pantaleon, the pediatrician, if they didn’t get results in five days. Calls to that number went unanswered or a recording told them to leave a message that never was returned.
Dozens of frustrated residents describe spending days or weeks calling Pantaleon,
city mayors, state senators and Florida health officials only to find out — often weeks after their tests — that they were negative for the virus, or, worse, that their results were inconclusive.
“It’s really frustrating. My girlfriend wants go out and get groceries,” Charles Bond of Redland said during his wait for test results from the fairground at FIU. “But I have to keep saying it’s not safe until I know.”
Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Friday the state had become aware of the delays from these sites. Moskowitz said Pantaleon and his company, Medical Associates Network, were removed earlier this week. However, he cited a different reason for the removal: the doctor’s history.
Florida’s board of medicine put Pantaleon on probation in 2010 after he treated multiple patients improperly for HIV, according to the Florida Department of Health records. Then, in 2019, Pantaleon’s name appeared on a list of Florida doctors who had purchased large amounts of opioids, according to records from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Pantaleon did not respond to phone calls, voicemails or emails requesting comment.
How the test process should work
How does a doctor on probation for 10 years get hired by the state of Florida to deliver as many as 100,000 coronavirus test results to people waiting to learn whether they are infected?
The state contracts labs to process tests, companies to run the test sites, and third parties to call with results. Most of the labs, such as Quest or LabCorp, process results in two to three days and a doctor or nurse calls with results.
But that is not how it worked with Genetworx Laboratories, which has processed more than 106,000 tests in Florida.
The Virginia-based lab is subcontracted by CDR Maguire, a Miami engineering and emergency management company. CDR’s role is to buy test kits for sites and notify people with their results. The company has a contract with the state for $26,525 a day for result notification, according to state records.
CDR Maguire also subcontracted Pantaleon, and his name appeared as the point of contact at sites around the state for people with questions about their results.
Executive Vice President Tina Vidal said CDR Maguire has since terminated Pantaleon.
“As testing sites became more widely available across the state, there was an exponential corresponding increase in contacting patients,” Vidal said.
CDR Maguire has set up an online notification portal for people to check their results. The portal, which launched last week, remained inactive as of Friday. Vidal said it is being updated.
Frustrations mount
While Gov. Ron DeSantis has been publicly touting the high number of tests in Florida, residents like Bond were at home in self-isolation waiting for results.
When Bond, 24, started feeling symptoms, his boss urged him to get tested for COVID-19 before coming back to the office.
Bond went to the Youth Fairgrounds at Florida International University in Miami on May 13, and after being swabbed, he got a sheet with a contact number for Pantaleon scribbled on top and was told he would be called within five days. Bond called the number provided, but couldn’t get through for answers.
On May 22, after nine days of waiting, Bond called again. This time he got through to someone he said he believes was a representative at Pantaleon’s office. His test was negative.
But, during those nine days, Bond, a research analyst at FIU, couldn’t go into the lab to work or leave his house. His life was put on hold while he waited for his test results.
John Gillen went to Fort Lauderdale’s Holiday Park to get tested for the new coronavirus on April 30. A medical assistant swabbed his nose and told him to expect results in two to five days. The site provided phone numbers for Pantaleon and Genetworx to call with any questions.
Two days passed, then five. Gillen waited. He called both numbers. No answers.
He kept waiting and calling. Finally, 17 days after his original test Gillen got a call from CDR Maguire with his results. The test was negative.
“We’re forcing people to get back into work that’s not necessarily safe, because they’re encountering people like us, who think we’re safe but we’re not getting our test results to know if we are,” Gillen said.
Terry Hicks of Gulf Breeze said he is one of about 250 people in his community who made it a point to be tested at Tiger
Point Community Center in Santa Rosa County on May 8. Hicks said he was provided an information sheet with two phone numbers to call if he did not get results within seven days — one for Genetworx Lab and one for Medical Associates Network.
After a week went by, he called and left messages for Pantaleon. “I could tell I would never hear back,” he said.
Hicks and his neighbors began flooding with their local health department with calls seeking their results. One neighbor was particularly angry after being refused admission to a medical office while his results were pending, Hicks said.
Ten days after taking his test, Hicks said the health department told him he was negative for the virus.
“By then beaches were open and people were elbow to elbow,” he said. “They are testing but with the delays, the state doesn’t really know who they are missing.”
The companies and the people
CDR Maguire said it was one of the first companies to bring test kits to Florida. The company has purchased more than $34 million of medical supplies and a medical facility on the state’s behalf, according to state contracts.
CDR Maguire also has at least two dozen different contracts with the state for COVID-19 response. One of the contracts, dated May 18, is specifically for “patient notification up to 10,000 a day,” at a daily rate of $26,525 and a one-time setup fee of $25,000, according to state records.
Genetworx, previously a genetics testing company, has processed the fourth largest amount of coronavirus tests in Florida. The lab was one of the earliest private labs to process swabs when it began its COVID-19 services in midMarch. Of the 200 plus labs that report test results to Florida, Genetworx has the highest number of inclusive results — 641.
CDR Maguire has billed the state $9.8 million for test kits, supplies and processing from Genetworx, according to state contracts.
“The average turnaround time from receipt of sample is three days. Like all laboratories in the US, we have seen a significant increase in volume over the past few weeks and we have worked tirelessly to be as responsive as possible to our patients and provide prompt results,” Genetworx wrote in an emailed statement. “We are continuing to add resources to our client services team to ensure every patient call is answered immediately.”
Some testing sites gave out a Genetworx phone number as a contact for questions about results. Genetworx representatives told callers they were not allowed to give out results and instructed them to call Pantaleon’s office.
Pantaleon not only is listed in Florida as a pediatrician, he also is an officer of companies that include hair restoration, aesthetic & anti-aging and pharmaceuticals. In 2004, Pantaleon treated a half-dozen patients for HIV, using experimental medicine and failed to order proper follow-up treatments or refer patients to a specialist, state records show. The state board of medicine put Pantaleon on probation in 2010, requiring him to pay a fine, do community service and take an ethics course. He continues to be on probation.
Turning to officials
The termination of Pantaleon comes after at least a month of complaints that reached all levels of government in Florida. In Fort Lauderdale, Mayor Dean Trantalis fielded calls from alarmed residents looking for answers about their health.
Fort Lauderdale spokesman Chaz Adams said the city had become aware of concerns but its role in the testing is limited to providing the actual site, and he referred questions about test results to CDR Maguire.
“It is our understanding that delays in test results are not isolated to Holiday Park, but rather, are occurring at sites throughout the state,” Adams said.
Laura Geselbracht had been so frustrated trying to get her results from Pantaleon and CDR Maguire that she called the mayor of Fort Lauderdale and two state senators. She finally got results by email two weeks after being tested at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale.
“From a public health perspective, testing should have run smoothly, and it did anything but that,” Geselbracht said, questioning Panataleon’s involvement. “Who is this person? What are their credentials? They don’t even answer the phone. Surely if it was a legitimate operation, someone would be answering the phone.”
Karina Elwood can be reached at kelwood@sunsentinel.com. Cindy Krischer Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@ sunsentinel.com, 954-304-3908, Twitter and Instagram @cindykgoodman.