With Requests on the Rise, Hospital Reiterates Covid Testing Policies

Covid-19 testing criteria at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital remains limited to symptomatic and other high-risk patients.

Covid-19 testing criteria at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital remains limited to symptomatic and other high-risk patients, hospital leaders clarified Wednesday, saying they are getting a large volume of testing requests from employers and parents of children headed to summer camps as the state continues its gradual reopening process.

The hospital is one of two Covid-19 testing sites on the Island, and has strict clinical criteria that confines testing to symptomatic patients and a small number of high-risk asymptomatic patients due to the limited availability of tests, president and CEO Denise Schepici said at a press briefing Wednesday.

A second site, TestMV, is focused on testing asymptomatic patients and is located in the performing arts parking lot at the regional high school. TestMV is not affiliated with the hospital but is an independent public health partnership sponsored by Quest Diagnostics, Island Health Care and the six Island boards of health.

Head of nursing and operations Claire Seguin said at the briefing Wednesday that the hospital has received a “pretty decent” number of requests from business owners looking for pre-employment testing and parents looking to have children tested before attending summer camp. She attributed the high call volume to the arrival of summer.

The high school site, TestMV is testing asymptomatic patients free of charge, but does not test patients under the age of 18 and it may take several days to get an appointment.

Ms. Schepici said Wednesday that while the hospital has expanded testing to include all symptomatic patients, their close contacts, and high-risk asymptomatic patients, such as people with pre-existing conditions, the hospital does not have the supply or bandwidth to open testing for employers or summer camps.

“Our testing supply is limited and that’s why we need to stick to our clinical criteria,” Ms. Schepici said. “So pre-employment and pre-camp testing is not part of our criteria because of the limited number of tests.”

“It would just be too big a bucket,” added head of nursing Claire Seguin. “[Our testing] is broad enough, but it’s not everybody.”

The hospital has tested nearly 1,500 patients for the virus since March, with 28 tests coming back positive.

Ms. Schepici said domestic test manufacturing is limited, especially now with cases surging in states outside the Northeast. The hospital also needs to maintain a supply of its 45-minute turnaround tests so it can admit patients for care, she said, further limiting its capacity.

“Those have become rapidly depleted,” Ms. Schepici said of the short-turnaround tests. “That’s why we just really haven’t advocated for widespread testing without criteria.”

She said the hospital is not actively referring requests to the TestMV site.

“We personally are not referring them. A physician needs to refer those patients,” Ms. Schepici said. “We refer to our laboratory for patients of ours that have a primary care physician here with us, or who have an order from their physician.”

Contacted later, TestMV spokesman Mary Breslauer confirmed the partnership has also received calls from employers seeking tests for their employees. Ms. Breslauer said employers who call seeking tests have been directed to have their employees individually call the site call center at 877-336-9855. She said many such tests had been done since the facility opened in late May.

“That is something the TestMV site has been doing,” Ms. Breslauer said. “Anecdotally . . . there are a lot of employees who have come through the test site,” she added.

In other business Wednesday, hospital leaders reported their reopening process was going smoothly. Ms. Seguin said 47 patients attended rehab or physical therapy appointments on Monday. She added that the hospital emergency room is seeing increasing numbers of severely ill patients, issuing a reminder for people to come to the hospital if they have health concerns.

Also the hospital has seen a baby boomlet in the month of June, with 18 of 19 expected babies already born.

“It’s pretty exciting news,” Ms. Seguin said. “Lots of new babies on the Island.”

Ms. Schepici publicly thanked Mone Insurance and an anonymous donor for providing lunch for hospital employees from Art Cliff diner earlier in the week.

“The last two months have been really challenging,” she said “But having the community support us in these ways has made this pandemic that much easier for us to face every day.”

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/24/2020 - 17:15

Permalink

Bill New England

This article regarding the testing is so alarming on many levels. Highly limited testing capabilities and presumably limited contract tracing when the population continues to swell for the summer, is one way to "keep the numbers low." If the island really wanted the crowds for business, testing capabilities should be unlimited or close to it, for safety. I guess with people coming and going all summer, they can get their tests off island after infected workers and islanders while keeping positive test stats low on island. Nothing to see here, once again, sad.

Peter Katama

In NJ you currently can sign up online for a free test at a local CVS without a referral and without symptoms. I just signed up for a test on the same day within 2 hours. I encountered no limitations.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 07:22

Permalink

Islander MV

Hard not to be alarmed and confused by the limited testing here, after our country’s leader first claimed, “Anyone who wants a test can get a test,” but is now saying to slow the testing so we can have smaller numbers. Meanwhile, too many people are not wearing masks or keeping their distance. Staying home is the only recourse for those most at risk.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 08:42

Permalink

island girl islad

Since I am in a position where I can ask, I am asking where visitors to my shop came from for their vacation, While many are from the New England states many more came from places as diverse as Monte Negro via Brooklyn, NY., Houston, TX and California. Are they observing self isolating/quarantine here as Massachusetts directives apparently require? "No, I did that at home and now I am here on vacation." "I feel fine and I eat and live healthy." "I drove here and I was really caeful about where we stayed on the way."

It is sad that islanders spent many weeks in quarantine (and aren't really out yet) only to be facing thousands of our new best (and possibly very sick( friends..........

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 09:40

Permalink

JayEff Edgartown

Testing is huge. The EU is considering blocking travel from the US to Europe because the risk of people carrying the virus is high. MV has a similar problem: people coming from all over who will not self-quarantine, and may not wear a mask or take other precautions. Because recent infection numbers are low, people think MV is safe and relax their guard. We can be facing a spike like in other states where people are careless. Without testing, and mask enforcement, we can easily become a hot spot -- which our health care system cannot handle.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 09:54

Permalink

Emmet Off island

The vineyard is acting like Amity’s mayor in JAWS. Look at the volume of tests! Are they doing 2 a day? Keeping the numbers artificially low does no one any good. Testing testing testing!

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.