Within 48 hours, Mayo Clinic Florida transformed a conference room into a laboratory, allowing the hospital to increase its capacity to test and process coronavirus specimens throughout the state.
“We added plumbing for sinks, shelving, and refrigerators and freezers,” D. Jane Hata, with Mayo’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, said in a release. “It was a team effort to bring this to life, and I’m grateful for the tremendous service we can offer during this time.”
With that, combined with the existing Mayo Clinic Laboratories facilities, the hospital will be able to test more than 1,000 specimens daily, returning results within 24 hours.
“In the days and weeks to come, we will be working closely with other health care institutions in the region to assist in processing some of their test samples and significantly increase the overall volume of COVID-19 testing done,” said Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida.
“With faster and increased capacity of testing performed in our laboratories, we hope to provide a valuable service to the community and those affected by this virus,” he said.
The testing and processing is made possible through the use of diagnostic processors from Roche Diagnostics.
Aziza Nassar, chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology for Mayo Clinic Florida, said the lab will begin with 8,000 tests a week, and increase from there.
Current Mayo Clinic patients can be tested at a drive-thru testing site on the San Pablo campus between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Patients must first be screened by a Mayo Clinic provider, ensuring they meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for testing.
“Faster turnaround of test results will help us better define who is and who is not infected,” Thielen said. “This means a negative test result obtained in a timely fashion will allow us to make treatment decisions for these patients faster, free up much-needed hospital beds, and reduce the amount of personal protective equipment worn by health care workers treating these patients.”