Spotlight: CompuNet’s Contributions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

While COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on health care, Premier Health has rallied to provide “best in class” care to patients and support our community.

During the past few months, the pandemic has also revealed the importance of the clinical laboratory’s role in diagnosing and treating COVID-19 positive patients, as well as providing important data to public health agencies.

While the lab is typically not thought of as “patient-facing” or “providing direct care,” CompuNet teams have worked tirelessly alongside our Premier Health colleagues and other community partners in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Here are some of the projects that highlight the level of partnership and the scope of services CompuNet has provided since March:

UD Drive-Through COVID Testing Site: The University of Dayton Arena collection site was launched on March 17 thanks to strong leadership and teamwork from Premier Health, CompuNet, Fidelity Health Care, and University of Dayton. The UD drive-through was the first of its kind in Ohio and served as one of the longest running drive-through COVID collection sites in the country before relocating to OnMain (former Montgomery County fairgrounds) on Aug. 24. More than 24,000 patients have been tested over the course of the five months that the site was active.

COVID-19 IgG Antibody Testing: CompuNet began offering COVID-19 IgG antibody testing on April 27, allowing Premier Health to be the first hospital system in Southwest Ohio to offer this service. The tremendous demand for COVID-19 antibody testing prompted CompuNet to launch direct access testing to patients without a physician’s order on May 4. Antibody testing is currently offered at 28 CompuNet Patient Service Centers.

Convalescent Plasma Program: CompuNet has played an important role with Premier Health’s convalescent plasma treatment program, the first in the nation to utilize Mayo Clinic protocols to provide such therapy, by providing COVID-19 IgG antibody testing for potential convalescent plasma donors.

Innovative Test Solutions: Recognizing a shortage of test supplies would jeopardize the lab’s ability to provide our hospitals and the community with adequate COVID-19 testing, CompuNet proactively took steps at the beginning of the pandemic to address the critical shortages. CompuNet expanded its lab space and purchased multiple instruments to perform up to 1,500 tests daily. This would not have been possible without the support of Premier Health’s foundations and their generous contributions that enabled the purchase of COVID-19 instruments. CompuNet is continuing to source additional instruments as COVID-19 continues to spread.

Lab Services Expansion: In the coming weeks, CompuNet will implement nasopharyngeal swab collections at designated patient service center locations to provide additional access for patients and providers. Once finalized, the select patient service centers would require appointments during designated hours for COVID-19 collections, following all safety and infection control protocols. More information will be communicated in the coming weeks about the proposed expansion.

The pandemic will continue to present challenges in the coming months. CompuNet’s focus will remain on supporting our partners to provide the necessary testing and access to be an important part of the solution in fighting this virus.

Back to the August 2020 issue of Premier Pulse