Car-based COVID-19 testing comes to Santa Barbara County
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Some people can now be tested for the novel coronavirus in their own cars in Santa Barbara County.
Sansum Clinic is doing the testing outside its Urgent Care location in Santa Barbara, though the site is not considered a "Drive-Thru" testing site by Sansum staff because patients can't drop by just because they want a test.
People who get a recommendation from their doctor to do the testing and then book an appointment will be able to do the car-based testing, which is offered Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“We’re trying to limit the testing to people who seem like they’re sufficiently ill, that [testing] gonna maybe make a difference,” Sansum Clinic Chief Medical Officer and CEO Dr. Kurt Ransohoff said.
A small team of Sansum staff works at the site, including three registered nurses, a registration manager and a medical assistant. Patients drive to the site and are tested one car at a time. If more than one person is in the car, the sickest person is tested.
Once the patient registers for the test, they are given a mask through the car window and then given the test. They then can drive away, though everyone is told to assume they are sick and go into quarantine while they await the results.
This site can test up to 40 cars per day, with each test taking about 10-15 minutes.
The car-based test can be much safer for health care workers compared to giving potentially COVID-19-positive patients a test in a clinic or hospital.
“If you think somebody has this disease, you’d like to keep them away from other people,” Ransohoff said. “So the best way to do that is to just have them be in their car… the only person who’s exposed [to a potentially infected patient] is fully gowned, goggled and masked.”
A big issue continues to be turnaround time, however. Test results from this car-based site are sent to a lab across the country that is becoming more overwhelmed by the day.
Results have been as quick as three days, but also as slow as one week.
“The patients, the doctors, everybody wants to know quickly,” Ransohoff said. “It’s a real problem. And it limits the utility of the testing.”
The car-based tests still save on personal protective equipment, however, and Sansum hopes more health care providers open similar testing sites across the county.
