Story by: Lynne Choate on July 21, 2020
What started as a three- to five-day turnaround for coronavirus test results has become a more typical wait of up to seven days for some individuals to find out if they have COVID-19. A backlog processing tests has built up across the United States and is affecting the Louisville area. At times when labs are exceptionally busy, some results have taken 10-12 days.
“If you remember when the coronavirus first reached our community, testing kits were limited and having laboratories to process the test was scarce,” said Steven T. Hester, M.D., MBA, division president, provider operations, and system chief medical officer, Norton Healthcare. “The delay now is with processing the tests. The volume of tests being performed has increased as more and more people are wanting to be tested; the demand for testing is outpacing the labs’ ability to provide results.”
Norton Healthcare inpatients, patients preparing for a procedure and the system’s front-line caregivers get results in three to four days because the health system has capacity to process those tests in its own laboratory. All other testing is processed through partnering labs. On average, Norton Healthcare is testing more than 1,000 people per day.
Test results will be available in MyNortonChart. Individuals who test positive also will be contacted by phone. If you don’t have a MyNortonChart account, it’s free and easy to sign up.
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