WBTV story posted by Caroline Hicks, May 4, 2020.
As some communities start to slowly open back up, a local medical group is giving them the tools they need to know whether they can do so safely.
For the last five weeks, Tryon Medical Partners has been offering COVID-19 testing for entire businesses.
Right now, more than a dozen teams are prepared to drop everything at a moment’s notice and travel to test entire companies.
They can do it at testing sites in Charlotte, or travel anywhere in the country.
“We literally pack our people with masks, gowns everything on a plane, bus, however they’re traveling,” Tryon Medical Partners CEO Dr. Dale Owen said.
The teams are made up of four people, including doctors, nurses, and administrators. They can travel at a minute’s notice.
“They show up with all of their equipment and can begin testing within an hour or two,” Dr. Owen said.
They are testing employees from small companies to Fortune 500 companies.
“A lot of these employers are really integral to the fabric and function of the country,” Dr. Owen said. “We felt like even though there was testing going on for the most symptomatic patients, that this group of employees and patients were not being addressed.”
Some have urgent needs, others want to know how to move forward even after the results come in.
“From environmental engineering to testing contacts to temperature probing, questionnaires,” Dr. Owen said.
Dr. Owen said that they get results in one to three days.
Access to testing kits has not been a problem because they go through private companies.
“Whereas some of the largest companies that are testing have had to prioritize hospitals and patients which is a critical need and in doing so the lag time in seeing some of the folks outside of that takes longer,” Dr. Owen said.
Dr. Owen said this is important right now as communities start to open back up.
“We really need to be able to test a lot of the people who are asymptomatic as well so they don’t infect the rest of a company when everyone goes back to work,” Dr. Owen said.
Dr. Owen also said we should expect a second wave of COVID-19 and our actions right now could make all the difference.
Pricing varies based on what services a company requests.