‘Frontline’ of a war: Tryon Medical, Charlotte hospitals run COVID-19 testing clinics
As COVID-19 cases in Mecklenburg County continue to rise, more doctors are working to make sure sick patients are tested for the illness.
Charlotte’s Tryon Medical Partners opened a drive-thru COVID-19 testing clinic at noon Tuesday — and the Matthews clinic saw nearly 50 patients on the first day.
Charlotte’s biggest hospital systems, Atrium Health and Novant Health, are both operating testing clinics as well.
Testing will be critical in blunting the increase of COVID-19 cases, Tryon Medical CEO Dale Owen told the Observer. Mecklenburg County announced its first reported case March 12. As of Wednesday morning, the county had 14 reported cases of the coronavirus outbreak.
“This is really a war,” Owen said. “It is a war against an invisible foe. And instead of guns, we’re arming the frontline people with stethoscopes.”
The Tryon Medical testing clinic had been in the works for about three weeks before opening Tuesday, Owen said.
The clinic is open to the independent practice’s 130,000 patients in the Charlotte-area. The practice is also accepting new patients.
Tryon Medical
So how does testing work?
First, Owen said Tryon Medical is only testing symptomatic patients. Symptoms for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new strain of coronavirus, include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
People with those symptoms should call their doctor first for pre-screening. Approved Tryon Medical patients will be given an appointment time to go to the drive-thru clinic at 630 Matthews Township Parkway in Matthews..
The team of Tryon Medical doctors at the clinic will administer a flu test first, while the patient waits in their car. If the flu test is negative, the patient will be tested for COVID-19.
That test is then sent to North Carolina-based diagnostics company LabCorp. Results take about three days, Owen said.
Tryon Medical reported its first positive test of COVID-19 to health officials Monday. That person was tested in the parking lot of a different Tryon clinic before the drive-thru site was open, according to the practice.
The clinic opened at noon Tuesday, and will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. On the first day, Tryon Medical doctors saw 48 patients at the testing site, and collected samples for COVID-19 tests from 37 of them, according to the practice.
Atrium
Charlotte’s biggest health care system, Atrium Health, has two coronavirus testing centers, spokesman Dan Fogleman told the Observer. Those centers have been operating for a few weeks, he said.
The hospital system isn’t releasing the location of the centers publicly, he said. Only patients with symptoms who have been pre-screened by doctors will be tested.
Atrium is also screening for COVID-19 at its hospitals’ emergency department screening centers.
Patients should call their doctor to get an appointment at an Atrium testing center.
Atrium also offers an online COVID-19 risk assesment at atriumhealth.org/getcarenow. The hospital system performs COVID-19 tests in-house, Fogleman said.
Novant
Novant has dedicated coronavirus testing centers in Winston-Salem, Kernersville and Huntersville, according to the hospital system website.
Novant Health GoHealth Urgent Care Centers are also screening for the illness.
The hospital system, the second largest in Charlotte, is only testing patients who have COVID-19 symptoms, according to the site. Novant tests are sent to LabCorp for testing.
Mecklenburg County
The county does not offer drive-thru testing, but officials said residents have many options with other local providers who do.
The county has a coronavirus hotline for people with questions or symptoms at 980-314-9400.
The Mecklenburg County public health department has increased testing since last Friday, when the county Public Health Director said the county was receiving just three test kits at a time from the state.
The county will begin sending tests to LabCorp instead of the state lab, WSOC reported Tuesday.
One of the big hold-ups in state testing had been a shortage in an extraction agent, needed to take genetic material out of the virus before running the test, state health director Elizabeth Tilson said last week.
The LabCorp tests don’t require that extraction agent, Tilson said.
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