UK HealthCare offering drive-through coronavirus testing for employees
The University of Kentucky Thursday implemented drive-through COVID-19 testing for its “frontline employees” and patient care providers.
The testing, which will be located at UK Healthcare Turfland, will only be available to health care workers that are presenting symptoms of COVID-19. Testing will require an appointment. It is not clear which employees are defined as “frontline employees.”
“We want to make sure we take care of our employees so they can take care of our community,” said Dr. Mark Newman, University of Kentucky executive vice president for health affairs. “With the availability of tests and supplies, we are prioritizing testing for inpatients and health care employees who are symptomatic at this time.”
The University of Kentucky clinical microbiology lab started running COVID-19 tests Friday, but with a “critical shortage” of testing supplies — namely the swabs that go up a patient’s nose — testing has mostly been limited to the most severe cases.
UK said it would look into expanding testing if more equipment becomes available.
Right now, the drive-through testing site will provide about 100 appointments a day. Employees will have to fill out a survey asking if they’re symptomatic. Employees who have recently traveled to one of the countries with a severe outbreak and have symptoms will also be allowed to fill out a survey.
“This drive-thru screening is focused on our health care employees because they are at the most risk because they have the most contact with patients who have COVID-19 and we need to be able to get them back to work so that they can care for our patients,” said Dr. Sarah Schuetz, internal medicine physician at UK HealthCare and co-physician lead for drive-thru testing for COVID-19.
The site will be at least the third drive-through testing site in Central Kentucky.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 12:00 PM.
