Numbers double on second day of Sacred Heart drive-thru coronavirus testing – Pensacola News Journal

Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal Published 4:16 p.m. CT March 17, 2020 | Updated 8:39 p.m. CT March 20, 2020

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On the second day of operating Escambia County's first drive-thru testing site for the coronavirus, Ascension Sacred Heart more than doubled the number of people it tested.

Florida health officials announced Escambia County's first confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Statewide, they announced 32 new COVID-19 cases and a death related to the respiratory disease on Tuesday morning. The state is still working to make testing more widely available, and because test kits and analysis labs are limited, officials have tried to be efficient and judicious when deciding who to test.

Ascension Sacred Heart's model of pre-screening callersfor symptoms and then sending them to a drive-thru testing site for a nasal swab has proven effective and has become a model for other organizations around the state and nation.

More: Pensacola drive-thru coronavirus testing clinic swabs 61 patients, receives over 500 calls

More: First positive coronavirus test confirmed in Escambia County

Justin Labrato, chief operating officer for Ascension Sacred Heart, said Sacred Heart tested 61 people on Monday and more than doubledthat number Tuesday as word of mouth spread and the work flow was streamlined.

"Since yesterday morning, we've had over 200 people that met criteria, that have driven over to the drive-thru testing center and been swabbed, and that have had their lab (work) sent on to be tested," Labrato said. "The call center itself has already screened 1,000 callers, so about 20% of the callers end up meeting all the criteria that we're following."

Addressing why only 1 in 5 is sent for testing, Labrato said Sacred Heart is closely following guidelines established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I would say the majority of the people have very valid concernsfor example, they've received a letter from a cruise ship they were on but they don't have symptoms. Some of those are being screened out," Labrato said. "Now if they have symptoms tomorrow, we'll test for them. But nationally, there are only so many tests out here we can do, so that's why everyone is using the same criteria to make sure that we're testing the appropriate people right now."

He said he understood that was frustrating to some, and said that the hospital was doing its best to direct callers to appropriate care options.

"There's some people that are just like, 'No, but I really, really feel like I'm sick and I want the test.' We're having to politelytell them that we can't right now if they don't meet the criteria. We're as polite as we can be, and wegive them further information on what they can do as well as give them information on a virtual doctor visit that they could do from their home."

Ascension Sacred Heart medical professionals set-up and operate a drive-through test site for the COVID-19 virus on Monday, March 16, 2020.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

Labrato said the call center is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and pre-screening calls typically take three to five minutesfor people who are screenedout, and around 10 minutes for people who qualify for testing. He said staff had been managing the call volume well and Sacred Heart was shifting more resources to the call center, but he noted "if I added five more phone lines, they would all be ringing immediately."

Sacred Heart is not publicly disclosing the location of the drive-thru test site in an effort to help ensure people go through the pre-screening process instead of just showing up at the site.

The outdoor testing site is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Labrato said the time and testing hours were intentionally limited in part for the comfort and safety of medical staff who must wear gloves, face masks, gowns and other protective gear that can be stifling in the heat.

In terms of general protective practice against transmission of COVID-19, most gear is exchanged and disposed between each individual patient. Globally, there have been shortages of face masks and other protective gear. Labrato said Sacred Heart is monitoring those issues daily, but was in good shape so far.

In terms of the testing procedure for citizens, Labrato said lines of cars could be long in the morning, but the testing procedure is generally about five minutes.

"You have the line, and there are screening personnel who are the first line of defense to make sure the person actually called the pre-screening center and that they're registered in the system ... then they drive through the parking lot, and the very first stopis a team that asks for their consent to be able to do the testing, because we've done testing on kids who are 3 years old, up to 80-year-old patients. And so then they go to the final step of the line, and that's where they do a nasal swab."

Labrato said theSacred Heart staff are picking up tests roughly every 30 minutes, taking them to the hospital to be sent of for testing. He said the state is working on setting up more labs to analyze results, but that currently the process takes about a week.

An important function of the call center is to close the loop for patients when results do come in, Labrato said. Sacred Heart is able to contact the patient, their primary care doctorand inthe case of a positive test, the Florida Department of Health, and informeveryone of the results.

Speaking generally to the importance of communication, Labrato said the team has a debriefing every day at 4 p.m. to talk about what worked, what didn't and what could be done to improve. He said Community Health Northwest Florida is expected to open another testing site in the coming days, and that thehealth care organization and many others were at the table to ensure that, under the circumstances, they put in placethe best possible practices to get the best possible outcomes for their patients.

"We only had about 72 hours to pull this together at Sacred Heart," Labrato said. "I have a team of about 70 people who are SacredHeart leaders and clinicians that helped put this together.But with the success we've had in the last two days,we have helped multiple other health systems in Jacksonville, in New York, and we just got one from Flagler (County) on the east side of the state. Everybody is wanting to learn best practices."

To be pre-screened, callthe call center at850-746-2684.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at krobinson4@pnj.com or 850-435-8527.

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Numbers double on second day of Sacred Heart drive-thru coronavirus testing - Pensacola News Journal