The University Medical Center is reversing the course by asking members of the public without COVID-19 symptoms or exposure to a confirmed case of the disease not to make an appointment at one of its large test drive sites.
“This will ensure that the highest risk patients maintain convenient access to the tests,” UMC spokesman Scott Curbs said in an email this week.
After a shortage of tests across the country in March and April, UMC and UNLV School of Medicine increased their capacity in southern Nevada to the point that, in early May, anyone who wanted a test could get it one, often in one day. But with increasingly difficult citations and results taking longer to come, there is again evidence that the testing system here, as in much of the country, is under pressure.
Controls on the UMC website used to schedule the tests repeatedly showed this week that no appointments were available at the Thomas and Mack Center and Texas Station test centers run by the county hospital with the Clark County government and National Guard from Nevada.
On Thursday morning, the site showed that appointments were available at the Texas station as early as Friday. A couple of hours later, however, they were all gone.
UMC is scheduling appointments a few days in advance, and the spaces fill up quickly, Curbs said.
Amid the growing demand for COVID-19 testing, “whenever possible, UMC asks community members to keep public test appointments available to community members with symptoms of COVID-19 and those who have been exposed to the virus, “the hospital said in a statement. press release on Thursday.
However, UMC did not require symptoms or exposure for an individual to be examined.
Meanwhile, UNLV Medicine, which runs a test-drive site with the Nevada National Guard, still has appointments scheduled for a day or two, spokesman Paul Joncich said. People are not required to have symptoms to be tested, he said.
Leveling test
The number of daily COVID-19 tests reported by the state government reached a record high of nearly 13,000 tests on July 7, after the long holiday weekend. After that, the numbers stabilized, with a maximum of more than 10,000 tests daily to a minimum of less than 5,000. On Thursday, a maximum of more than 15,000 tests were reported after a system update eliminated a delay in processing laboratory records, but not the actual tests.
The July leveling reflects that laboratories across the industry have the ability to process tests, said Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno, which processes a large number of tests conducted in the state.
Laboratory capacity problems are also causing delays in obtaining test results of a week or more in some cases.
“When the labs are operating at their capacity, the samples have to start waiting in line to be analyzed,” Pandori said Thursday during a telecast for journalists. “Suddenly, a test that normally took one to three days, takes four to eight, for example” to be processed.
New UMC test policies
In a move that could ease some of the strain on testing ability, UMC also announced new policies Thursday to reduce unnecessary repeat testing and ensure “patients at highest risk maintain convenient access to testing.” .
These include stopping providing repeated tests after an initial positive test result, which “has not proven to be an effective tool in determining when patients can safely discontinue isolation,” said UMC.
The new policies reflect the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which instead of repeating tests recommends isolation for at least 10 days after symptoms appear. Furthermore, a patient must go at least 24 hours without fever and experience improvement of symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath before ending quarantine.
Many symptom-free patients can safely complete self-isolation 10 days after a positive test. Patients with compromised immune systems should speak to their doctor.
Also, a negative person must now wait 10 days before retesting with UMC. If the individual develops symptoms during the waiting period, the hospital recommends seeking medical attention in a doctor’s office to determine if a test is needed. Everyone who believes they have been exposed to the virus is asked to isolate themselves at home during the waiting period.
Additionally, UMC has introduced a five-day waiting period after a negative test for healthcare workers and the first to respond without symptoms.
Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected] or 702-383-0336. Follow @ MaryHynes1 on Twitter.
