The state’s COVID-19 testing site is likely to move out of the National Guard Armory in the Columbus Municipal Airport by the end of August, with the county taking over supervision of community-based testing.
That’s according to an July 17 email sent to local health officials by the Indiana State Department of Health, Bartholomew County Health nursing division director Amanda Organist said.
During the first two weeks in May, the state department of health worked in conjunction with Optum, an international health care and management company, to open up to 50 free testing sites around the state.
For the next two-and-a-half months, state health officials did not want local health departments doing testing because the counties were swamped with carrying out case investigations and related work, Organist told the Bartholomew County Commissioners Monday.
But now that the state has taken over investigations and contact tracings, state health officials are asking health officials in all 92 Indiana counties to begin COVID-19 testing, she said. The current contract that the state has with the armory to host the testing site will expire at the end of August, she said.
State health officials have asked each county to let the state know whether they would be willing to provide community-based testing. On Monday, the county commissioners voted unanimously to accept that responsibility.
Due to the community’s size, the state requires two separate testing sites be provided in the Columbus area. A determination has already been made that one testing site will be the Nursing Division of the Bartholomew County Health Department, 2675 Fox Point Dr., Suite B.
Organist said she met recently with Bartholomew County Emergency Preparedness director Shannan Hinton about where the second testing site might be located. While the health department has reached out to several organizations, no decisions have been made at this time regarding the location of the second testing site, Organist said.
The state will provide each testing site with $100,000, as well as all required equipment, Organist said. The money would help pay for staff, after-hour operations, and advertising. she said.
State health officials are asking that each testing site provide after-hour testing, as well as be open an undetermined number of hours on weekends.
Although the local health department will operate one of the testing sites in their own building, the county will be required to seek bids from private health care firms to run the second site, Organist said.
The nursing division director said there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
“I’m hoping (the ISDH) will provide further information once they go over all of those (county responses),” Organist said.
Besides the armory, COVID-19 testing is also being done at PromptMed, 2502 25{sup}th{/sup} St. and at Columbus Regional Hospital, 2400 17{sup}th{/sup} St. Appointments must be made to be tested.
In recent weeks, the ISDH has been accused of being too slow in the turnaround of results.
When county commissioner Larry Kleinhenz asked what the turnaround time will be when the county takes over, Organist said she’s not sure right now. {p class=”gnt_ar_b_p”}Initially, ISDH officials said the free Optum testing sites would be able to return results within 48 hours. But by mid-June, that time frame has stretched to nearly 60 hours, with some sites taking as long as 80 hours, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said.{p class=”gnt_ar_b_p”}Organist told Kleinhenz the latest estimate of time between being tested and receiving the results is now between 48 to 72 hours.
