A Turnkey Solution for Back to School COVID Testing

Two paths are converging and help is needed, quickly. 

With the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases over the last month, and schools and universities getting set to open across the country, educators are looking for a turnkey solution to keep their institutions open and prevent coronavirus outbreaks from threatening in-person learning.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising a multi-pronged mitigation strategy that includes social distancing, masking, and regular testing in educational settings.

Regular testing that produces timely results is the mission, and medical laboratories throughout the U.S. that are equipped with the necessary tools to deliver this service will be uniquely positioned to play a leading role in any COVID-19 mitigation strategy.

“For schools and universities to reopen safely, they will need a laboratory testing partner who can help them organize and manage their testing while also providing fast and accurate test results,” said LigoLab Information System CEO Suren Avunjian. “The key is for laboratories to have a direct connection with the patient and the institution.”

For labs seeking a one-stop direct-to-consumer lab testing software solution that can be quickly deployed within a learning environment, there’s TestDirectly, a cloud-based patient engagement portal that integrates with any LIS laboratory information system (LIS meaning medical) and can be implemented within a matter of days. The direct-to-consumer la testing portal manages the scheduling of testing events, all forms of specimen collection, automated patient notification, and patient result reporting. 

“The platform covers all aspects of direct-to-consumer lab testing, like surveillance and pooled testing, and it enables patients to easily share their vaccination status and test history on a mobile device,” continued Avunjian. “It removes bottlenecks, empowers students, families, and educators, and fully supports laboratories at every stage.”

Once in place, TestDirectly (and TestDirectly.com) eliminates errors and reporting delays by replacing paper forms and manual processes with a user-friendly molecular LIS lab workflow that boosts a lab’s testing capacity, improves its turnaround times, and also provides a better experience for all stakeholders. To date, the platform has supported a large network of laboratories and collection centers that have collected, tested, and reported over 10 million COVID-19 cases.

TestDirectly streamlines testing workflows by supporting the upload of patient demographics to an administrative portal via a CSV file or an integration. Once the students, teachers/professors, and staff members have all been uploaded into the pathology lab management system, an administrator can create scheduled or ad-hoc testing events based on variables like patient location and patient type. TestDirectly also provides access control management, which allows administrators to see test results by facility, staff, students, or any other attribute. 

Additionally, the platform automatically delivers test results to students, families, administrators, and public health agencies, and it integrates with SMART Health Cards, which are digital versions of clinical information. These digital cards allow patients to access and share test results and vaccination histories via a QR code scan with schools, businesses, and other institutions.

TestDirectly also features LIS laboratory information system functionality, and the platform’s core services include patient and family self-registration and scheduling, capacity management, specimen collection, sample tracking and processing, laboratory billing, compliance, report generation, patient results notification (by email and text), and automated report delivery. 

To learn more, visit here. 

The Back-to-School Return Ready Program

Included in the TestDirectly network is an Illinois molecular lab, one that’s considered a national leader in COVID-19 testing volumes and turnaround times. 

Two years ago the lab’s CEO, added molecular testing to the lab’s successful histopathology business. Soon thereafter he and his team gained a well-earned reputation for providing high-quality test results while partnering with area schools, large employers and health systems, and government agencies. 

The lab’s relationships with area schools date back to last fall. That’s when it first teamed up with Peoria Public Schools (PPS, District 150) to support the district’s testing program that called for a mixture of symptomatic and random asymptomatic testing of students and staff. 

The PPS testing program was a success, two-fold. First, by leveraging TestDirectly and TestDirectly.com, the lab was able to deliver the test results back to school administrators within 24 hours, and second, the district - made up of 10 middle schools and three high schools - was able to get a better understanding of the level of the virus in the community. 

Positive press led to more opportunities as other schools and universities began to reach out and utilize the lab for testing, including McLean County Unit 5 Schools, and several area universities. 

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Now, with the 2021-22 school year upon us, the lab’s phone continues to ring and the CEO and his team, knowing they have the capacity and the expertise to deliver on all of their testing partnerships, continue to answer the calls. They also continue to provide the all-in-one direct-to-consumer lab testing solution that schools and universities need to keep COVID-19 cases from spiking and threatening institutional closures.

TestDirectly and TestDirectly.com - Flexible and Comprehensive Molecular Lab Software

TestDirectly is an easy-to-use cloud-based patient engagement portal that provides turn-key point-of-care testing solutions and connects laboratories and collection centers with patients, physicians, schools, employers, organizations, and government agencies. TestDirectly eliminates bottlenecks by automating the collection and processing of specimens, the creation and delivery of reports, and the management of both payment and compliance, all while also delivering a better patient experience.