Memorial Health System Security Officer Vincent Moore tightens the drive-thru clinic sign at Memorial’s Pike Street location between Walmart and Aldi’s in Marietta. (Photo by Janelle Patterson)

MARIETTA — Memorial Health System’s drive-thru assessment clinic for COVID-19 is now open without a doctor’s referral to all patients presenting respiratory symptoms.

Many patients of the system have been notified by email of the expanded service.

Dr. Dan Breece, vice president of physician services and chief medical officer for Memorial, said the change has followed the hospital’s evolution from early in April when it moved the clinic from the system’s Wayne Street campus to the Pike Street Physician’s Care Express location between Walmart and Aldi’s.

“We’re still seeing the normal Physician’s Care Express patients inside the building, but those with a respiratory symptom or fever may simply drive through the two car lines and they will be met there by a provider between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day of the week,” Breece said. “They will assess them in the vehicle. That includes questioning them and listening to their heart and lungs and doing an exam and if they need a test… or if they’ve had contact with a positive COVID patient they will receive the test right then and there and they will get results typically within about two days.”

Security officers at the site reported participation has come in spurts.

“But we’ve had over 100 cars come through that line in one day, we’re prepared for it,” said Breece. “We’ve even had plenty of cars that have pulled out of Walmart and had some questions and we’re able to answer their questions there.”

Last week, community health departments and hospitals had to date initiated 1,285 tests in Washington County, Washington County Health Department Public Information Officer Sherry Ellem said.

“The rate of tests positive for COVID-19 is 7.2 percent,” she said.

Breece said testing is still an evolving effort as Memorial is prepared to test in-house to receive results within an hour but are awaiting materials in short supply to complete that lab work.

The system is utilizing both the Ohio Department of Health lab and the Quest lab out of Chantilly, Va.

“Over the last two weeks we have been able to do in-house testing with turnaround in an hour or less,” said Breece. “So we’re close, but we don’t have enough reagent yet to really do that full scale.”

As monitoring and assessment continue, Times readers have questioned whether they can safely get routine lab work done and see their providers for other routine and acute care.

“I want patients to know it is absolutely safe for them to receive care at any of our access points,” said Breece after hearing the concerns. “We’re asking our workers here, our patient-facing staff to wear a mask now. If you’re a patient coming into any of our access points (and) you have a cough, we stop to ask that you put a mask on and can provide those. We’re even doing registration at home so we can minimize the contact that’s necessary.”

Breece said with at-home registration patients then can notify via a phone app their scheduled clinician when they arrive at the Memorial location. They will then be summoned or escorted when the physician or clinical provider is ready to see them.

“We also have some telehealth options, but a lot of patients need to be seen in person and they should feel safe doing that,” said Breece. “They can get labs done or X-Rays at the hospital just like they used to.”

Breece also said while elective surgeries were suspended per state order in March, each scheduled surgery and procedure was individually assessed by the system’s physicians to determine which met the state’s criteria to move forward.

“We all have a similar fear for our patients that they’re putting things off,” said Breece. “We also didn’t want a patient to be in debilitating pain and not provide relief and then have them seek pain relief elsewhere and later have a reverse crisis again that we’ve fought so hard to combat (with the opioid epidemic).”

Elective surgeries that did not move forward did contribute to current furloughs, according to both Breece and Jennifer Offenberger, associate vice president of service excellence at Memorial.

“We’re pleased that right now our (local infection) curve has not gone where we anticipated it would so we soon will be able to open back up and do more,” said Offenberger. “We anticipate as that happens those people that were furloughed will be able to return over time.”

The system employs 3,200 people and furloughs were put in place to maintain all employment with benefits rather than inducing layoffs, she said.

“We always took the stance that we wanted to keep the 3,000-some employees employed, to make sure that these folks had benefits and jobs to come back to,” said Breece.

Offenberger said the system’s administrative staff was also subject to cutbacks in hours.

Janelle Patterson may be reached at jpatterson@mariettatimes.com.

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At a Glance

* The Memorial Health System COVID-19 assessment clinic is now open to any patient without a doctor’s referral who is exhibiting any of the following symptoms:

* Fever

* Cough

* Nasal congestion

* Runny nose

* Shortness of breath

* Sore throat

* The clinic is located at the system’s Physician’s Care Express location, 800 Pike St., Marietta.

* The Physician’s Care Express clinic is still operating under normal hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and accepting non-COVID related patients inside.

* To complete registration at home prior to assessment inside the clinic or for any other Memorial appointment visit: mhsystem.org/COVIDregister

Other resources from the system:

* 24-hour free nurse triage line: 844-474-6522

* Virtual telehealth app: MemorialCareNow, learn more at mhsystem.org/memorialcarenow

Source: Memorial Health System.