DERBY — Griffin Hospital is getting ready to offer “drive through” testing for COVID-19 to those with a doctor’s order.
“Griffin Hospital put in a proposal to the CT DPH which has been accepted to be a site of drive-testing,” Dr. Frederick Browne, Chief Medical Officer and an Infectious Disease doctor at Griffin Hospital, told The Valley Indy Saturday.
The set up could be live by the middle of this week, Browne said. A formal announcement and additional details will be coming from Griffin.
It will be on the Griffin Hospital campus, not in the hospital itself.
An order from a doctor will be needed. A doctor’s office will have to get the test order to Griffin Health, whether by fax or electronically.
People with symptoms should not report to a doctor’s office or hospital without calling first.
“A physician will have to feel the patient needs testing, and meets the CDC criteria,” Browne said.
The test, a nose swab, will test for COVID-19 and influenza type B (which is still very much prevalent locally).
The flu test result can be ready within 15 minutes. The COVID-19 results will be sent out to a lab and could take three to four days for results. The result time is expected to decrease as test capacity is increased in the U.S.
Existing patients of Griffin Faculty Physicians will have the ability to do “televisits,” Browne said, and the in-house docs will be able to send an electronic order.
Signs will be going up at Griffin directing motorists where to go.
More information and formal announcements will be forthcoming.
It’s the latest in a series of measures the hospital has been taking.
“Every hospital, including Griffin, has a plan in place for this type of infection, outbreak, epidemic or pandemic,” Browne said.
In addition to making sure there is protective equipment for medical staff, Griffin has modified its emergency department to set up a “respiratory infection pod.” It’s an area to put patients who have
upper-respiratory track infections. It’s a well-protected, negative pressure area, Browne said.
Patients there will be able to go into individual negative pressure rooms. The pod will be up and running this week, as well.
To increase capacity, Griffin Hospital has also repurposed a hospital ward that was not being used. Respiratory patients will be able to go there as well.
“We may not even have to use it. We may have more mild cases. Eighty-one percent of the patients who were sick ended up having mild disease,” Browne said, referencing data coming from China, where COVID-19 originated.
Griffin Hospital is licensed for 160 beds. On an average day, about 100 beds are in use.
“I feel comfortable that we can manage this. We have ways to manage surge and surge capacity. I feel we are prepared for this,” Browne said.
