How and where to get tested for coronavirus

Drive-thru coronavirus testing at UH Landerbrook Health Center

Medical personnel wear protective gear at the University Hospitals Landerbrook Health Center during the second day of drive-thru coronavirus testing on Tuesday, March 17.The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Every day, the guidance on how to get tested for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, changes.

How to get tested depends on which health care system you use. You do not need to be a Cuyahoga County resident, just a patient at one of these systems or providers.

Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic announced it will reserve COVID-19 testing for only high-risk patients to preserve its supply of testing swabs. The hospital has an adequate supply, but didn’t anticipate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, where the swabs are manufactured, the hospital system said in a statement Tuesday.

High-risk patients include those who currently are hospitalized, as well as those who are 61 and older. These patients will continue to be tested at the Clinic’s drive-thru testing site: the W.O. Walker Building parking garage, at 10524 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland. Testing is only available with a Clinic doctor’s order.

Patients under 60, who have a Clinic doctor’s order, are asked not to go to the W.O. Walker testing facility until the Clinic gives them further instructions. Patients with a fever over 100.4 and/or a cough are asked to self-quarantine, the Clinic said. If their condition worsens, these patients are instructed to contact their doctor or go to the emergency department.

In the first four days of operating drive-thru testing sites, the Clinic tested more than 2,200 patients, and 2,100 patients are waiting to be tested, the health system said. There were “a small number” of positive test results for COVID-19, the Clinic said.

Previously, the Clinic was providing drive-thru testing for patients both at its W.O. Walker site and at the University Hospitals Landerbrook site, but Clinic patients no longer are being tested at UH Landerbrook.

University Hospitals

UH is still offering coronavirus testing for anyone with a doctor’s order at the UH Landerbrook Health Center drive-through testing site in Mayfield Heights. There are no high-risk restrictions at UH.

"If they have a doctor's order and they are a UH patient, they should go to the Landerbrook location only, and we will do our best to process as many patients as we can from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” said UH spokeswoman Jeannine Denholm. "Our policies are exactly the same."

UH has not experienced any shortage of testing swabs thus far, she said.

UH patients should not go to W.O. Walker for testing, Denholm said.

Other providers

“Doctors who are not associated with UH or the Clinic are still able to test their patients and send the specimens to be tested by the Ohio Department of Health or​ other private labs​,” said ODH public information specialist Rachel Feeley.

“This is the same process from before the hospitals developed their own testing capabilities and will help ensure that patients do not fall through the cracks,” Feeley said.

A good first step is to call your doctor for an assessment, Feeley said. Patients with mild symptoms may not need a COVID-19 test, and will be told to self-quarantine by their healthcare provider. If symptoms are worse or a doctor decides testing is needed, the patient will receive instructions on how to get a test or medical care, Feeley said.

Feeley added that testing at the ODH lab must be requested via the patient’s local health department, and approved by ODH prior to the specimen being submitted.

MetroHealth

MetroHealth will test non-Metro patients for COVID-19, a spokesman said. However, testing supplies are limited, and reserved for critically-ill hospitalized patients and those who have had direct contact with them, MetroHealth CEO Dr. Akram Boutros said in a statement.

MetroHealth is working with its vendors to get the supplies needed to expand testing and make it more widely available.

Another good first step is calling the MetroHealth System COVID-19 hotline at 440-59-COVID (440-592-6843).

Anyone — including those whose primary physician isn’t at MetroHealth —can call the hotline to be screened to determine if he or she needs to be tested, a spokesman said. A provider will ask questions, evaluate symptoms and give advice about whether to get tested, see a doctor or to stay at home.

MetroHealth has received more than 1,100 calls since opening the COVID hotline Friday, the health system said. Nearly half of those calls resulted in a telehealth visit with a physician, and about 90% of patients who spoke with physicians were told to self-quarantine.

MetroHealth can now test COVID-19 samples at its in-house laboratory, and results are available in two hours. The decision whether or not to administer a COVID-19 test lies with MetroHealth’s infection prevention doctors, a spokesman said.

During his City Club speech last Thursday, Boutros said drive-thru testing would be available soon at his health system. But on Tuesday, a spokesman said the health system has no plans to implement drive-thru testing at this time.

“At the moment, we do not have the capacity for drive-thru testing. If that changes, we will re-evaluate and work with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health,” the spokesman said.COVID-19 is a respiratory illness with symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath. It has sickened thousands and killed 6,600 globally, according to the World Health Organization. There is not yet a vaccine for COVID-19, nor are there any medications approved to treat it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more coronavirus coverage:

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Cleveland Clinic identifies ‘handful’ of positive coronavirus cases

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