This Idaho health care company is trying something new for COVID-19 testing as cases rise
Primary Health Medical Group has taken a different approach to screening, testing and treating patients who have symptoms of the new coronavirus.
The company last month began to set aside a few of its clinics in Garden City, Meridian and Nampa for possible COVID-19 patients, with the other 15 continuing to serve everyone else. Primary Health operates 18 clinics in the Treasure Valley.
Patients with symptoms of COVID-19 — such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and/or diarrhea — can call a Primary Health clinic to be screened over the phone. If they meet criteria for a COVID-19 test, they get a same-day appointment at one of Primary Health’s “respiratory clinics.” Those clinics and phone numbers are:
- 5601 W. Chinden Blvd., Garden City: 208-809-2865
- 3280 E. Lanark Drive, Meridian: 208-895-8670
- 700 Caldwell Blvd., Nampa: 208-466-6567
When those patients arrive for their appointments, they can park and stay in their vehicle while a health care provider examines them — checking their oxygen level, for example — and swabs them for a COVID-19 test, if they qualify for testing.
St. Luke’s Health System also offers drive-up screening and COVID-19 testing at multiple locations in Treasure Valley and greater Idaho. Saint Alphonsus Health System offers drive-up assessments in Meridian and Nampa for people who think they might need a COVID-19 test. Saltzer Health offers drive-up testing at its urgent care clinics in Nampa.
Primary Health tries new options for coronavirus testing
Patients who get a test through Primary Health have their results within about 48 hours, said Dr. David Peterman, a pediatrician and CEO of Primary Health. That fast turnaround time is achieved by air-mailing the test specimens to a regional laboratory operated by LabCorp, a large national company.
Patients without symptoms can continue to go to Primary Health’s other clinics for scheduled appointments and urgent care walk-in visits.
Primary Health had tested about 2,600 patients as of Wednesday. Of those, 1,800 were negative, 74 were positive, and 560 test results were pending.
Some of those patients, early on, were tested in a traditional way — in an isolation room at a clinic.
“Then we said, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve got to come up with a better idea,’” Peterman said.
The office staff and doctors at Primary Health came up with the idea together, he said.
“They said, ‘This is the way we should do this,’ and they’re right,” he said.
The approach limits face-to-face exposure between patients who may be contagious and Primary Health’s clinicians and other patients, Peterman said.
During the statewide stay-at-home order, with schools and businesses closed, “you have mothers and fathers who are taking care of children at home and trying to work, and things will happen,” Peterman said.
“We’ve heard from the mother who stepped on a nail while working from home with her kids. She chose not to come in for a tetanus shot because she didn’t want to risk exposure to the coronavirus,” he said in a news release. “We heard from a grandmother in a high-risk group who burned her finger and decided not to come in for the same reason. That’s why it’s so important for us to designate ‘clean’ clinics, so our patients can have peace of mind.”
There is no guarantee that patients and health care workers won’t be exposed to asymptomatic patients who come into the clinic, Peterman admits. But it reduces the likelihood of transmission, especially by keeping patients out of hospital emergency rooms, he says.
That is important as the virus spreads through the community, with health care workers at risk of getting sick. Primary Health has had at least one employee contract the new coronavirus. According to state data, at least 41 health care workers in Idaho have tested positive for COVID-19.
With a triage system for patients, “we decrease the spread, we don’t have to contaminate a room in the building, and we decrease the number of gowns and gloves we need,” Peterman told the Statesman.
Primary Health also follows up with the patients later, calling them and setting up telehealth visits to see how they’re doing.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 3:02 PM.
