HEALTH
MEDICAL CENTER OUTREACH TEAM DELIVERS ALMOST 11,000 COVID-19 TEST KITS ACROSS OHIO
Senior Regional Outreach Coordinator Susan Prewitt prepares to deliver used COVID-19 test kits to be processed at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Since April 1, 16 members of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Outreach and Engagement team have logged nearly 60,000 miles delivering almost 11,000 COVID-19 test kits to community hospitals and postacute care facilities across Ohio.
land-grant university is to provide the state and Distribution,” Blincoe said. “This is a of Ohio with whatever help we can during coordinated team effort.” this pandemic.” Of key importance is the fact that the In addition to delivering test kits to almost majority of these test kits have been created 30 community hospitals across Ohio, team by Medical Center researchers. During the members pick up test specimens and bring COVID-19 outbreak, there’s been a critical them back to Ohio State Wexner Medical shortage of test kit components, including the Center’s lab. They also transport other swabs used to collect samples and the sterile needed supplies to support the care of solution needed to transport the swabs. The COVID-19 patients, including personal test kits include nasopharyngeal swabs and protective equipment such as masks, gowns vials filled with a sterile solution called viral and digital thermometers. transport media (VTM).
The COVID-19 testing kits produced by Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health are provided to expand and accelerate testing. Each test kit can be processed by a lab at Ohio State or elsewhere, said Tom Blincoe, executive director of Outreach Delivery runs happen daily Monday through and Engagement and the Ohio State Health Saturday, with team members driving each afternoon to hospitals and post-acute care Network. centers in Bellefontaine, Bucyrus, central Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Outreach Ohio, Cincinnati, Coldwater, Dayton, and Engagement team would visit hospitals Galion, Hillsboro, Lancaster, Lima, London, across the state to share information about Marysville, Mount Vernon, Ontario, Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and Portsmouth, Springfield, Upper Sandusky, determine best ways to meet the needs of Van Wert, Washington Courthouse, those hospitals and the communities they Wilmington, Youngstown and Zanesville. serve. But during the pandemic, that was no longer possible because of new hospital “In addition to the Outreach and Engagement drivers, this project wouldn’t be possible visitor restrictions. without supply chain management, “We determined there was a need to do University Reference Laboratories, something different around testing, and our Ohio State Wexner Medical Center labs, staff jumped at the chance to help,” Blincoe Department of Pathology, Colleges of said. “We believe this is just something we Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, and should be doing. Part of our mission as a Nursing, along with Ambulatory Logistics The Columbus & Dayton African American • June 2020
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Since early April, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center has been producing its own VTM for COVID-19 test kits to expand and accelerate testing across Ohio. Some of the earlier test kits included commercially available VTM. “This program has been a huge asset for us, and we’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve received,” said Lisa Klenke, chief executive officer for Mercer Health, a 93-bed community hospital in Coldwater, Ohio that serves 40,000 residents in Mercer County along the Indiana state line. “Testing was the biggest challenge, but having access to the testing kits and the test runs daily has been a great advantage to us. Now we’ve been able to open a drive-thru swabbing station that is benefitting the entire community.”
The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015
