How this group of doctors is making COVID testing more accessible for Columbus residents
An organization founded by a small group of Georgia physicians has partnered with a Columbus church to increase accessibility to COVID-19 testing by opening a free drive-thru site with expanded operating hours.
The site is a partnership between Covid Solutions and the Greater Ward Chapel AME Church, 1330 Talbotton Rd. It operates in the church’s parking lot Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and does not require residents to make an appointment.
Test results come back within 40 hours and are sent via text message or an email. If someone doesn’t have access to either of those methods, they can call to receive their results.
Dr. Jeremy White, an emergency medicine physician at Piedmont Macon, works at the Greater Ward Chapel testing site along with doctors from across Georgia.
The group was motivated to do something after seeing patients come into emergency departments seeking rapid or outpatient COVID testing, a service not offered in many EDs during the omicron surge. Complicating matters, the recommended testing sites were too busy, the hours were too restrictive or required significant upfront payment, he said.
A Covid Solutions doctor who works in Columbus told the group that the Civic Center was overrun with residents needing to be tested, so they decided to get involved.
“We reached out to the pastor here at Greater Ward Chapel, and he was really receptive to it,” White said. “He gave us a great facility.”
The church already was looking for ways to offer COVID-19 testing during the omicron surge, so the partnership with Covid Solutions was a good match, Pastor Terrence Evans said.
Muscogee County reports that there are 4,051 new cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks at a rate of 2,114 cases per 100,000 people as of Jan. 11, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. In the last two weeks, 43% of the PCR tests performed in the county have been positive.
In Columbus, 41% of residents are fully vaccinated. This low vaccination rate was a concern, Evans said, and he felt more COVID testing was needed to keep people safe.
“I just thought that it was important that if you did not get vaccinated, at least you should know your status,” he said. “At least you should know what’s happening. Some persons may be infected with COVID-19 and be asymptomatic.”
‘You don’t have to sit in that long line’
Evans and White said the goal of the new testing site is to ease the demand put on the health department at the Civic Center, where long lines may cause delays in test results, and provide tests to neighborhoods that might not have easy access to them.
After she and another member of her family came down with a bad cough, Columbus resident Elaine Brown thought it would be best to get tested for COVID-19. She was tested on Dec. 31 and received positive results a few days later, making her one of over 1,000 Muscogee County residents to recently test positive for the virus.
After 10 days passed, Brown decided to go to the smaller testing center at Greater Ward Chapel Monday after experiencing long lines and technical difficulties at the Civic Center.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “You don’t have to sit in that long line and be there at 7 in the morning.”
Keeping the site open for longer periods was one of the group’s biggest priorities, White said. Many people have to work in the mornings and can’t get to a testing site that may only be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“Our expanded hours make a difference for them,” White said. “We go six days a week, so we want to be as accessible as possible for everybody.”
White has gone on about 25 medical missions throughout his career, he said, and figuring out the logistics of a COVID-19 testing site feels similar to the work he did on those trips.
“There’s people waiting,” White said. “You have to think about, how do I register them, triage them, treat them, see them or deliver whatever service you want to deliver, and then get them moving on.”
Some of those logistical challenges include staffing the testing site. There are around six people working at the site in addition to their regular job and commitments and they need more help, White said.
Covid Solutions will reimburse people for their time if they become a member of the staff. Medical skills are required for some but not all of the positions.
“It’s a little bit of customer service,” he said. “It’s a little bit of data entry. It’s a little bit of medical (skills) with the swabbing, but if you don’t want to swab, you don’t have to.”
White said he anticipates the testing site will be open for the next month depending on demand and coronavirus trends. Once the current surge dies down, the group will leave.
“And then wait, unfortunately, probably for another surge, which will probably be three to four months down the road again,” White said.
Evans said if there is another surge down the line, the church’s parking lot will always be available as a testing location again, but he hopes it won’t be needed.
Anyone interested in working at the testing site can go to covidsolutions.org for more information.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
