Boone Hospital Center can now test inpatients for COVID-19 in the hospital’s laboratory, according to a Tuesday news release, expediting results.
The in-house analysis using “rapid molecular technology” has reduced the time it takes to get results to less than an hour, “when we were previously waiting up to 24 hours,” Drew Wilkinson, Boone Hospital Center lab director, said in the release.
The laboratory has always been capable of performing the tests but was waiting on a federal allocation of testing kits, which the hospital received this week.
The in-house testing is only being used for inpatients and emergency department patients admitted to an inpatient unit.
The hospital’s laboratory may be utilized for outpatient testing as well if the supply of kits increases.
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