NCH stops drive-thru testing as patients left waiting for results

NCH Healthcare System is stopping all drive-thru testing for the coronavirus because it’s running out of supplies.

The announcement that they’ll only test inside the hospital comes as one woman said she’s still waiting for her test results after more than a week.

“I need to know if I exposed a large number of extremely frail people, very frail and very elderly,” said Janice Sides.

She still has a cough and fears she’ll spread COVID-19 if she does indeed have it.

”I wondered when they gave me such a runaround if they had lost my test,” she said.

“I do home health care through an agent and I cannot return back to work until I’m cleared by my primary care,” Sides said. “My primary care cannot see me until they know the results of my test.”

NCH said it hasn’t lost any tests. They did blame a technology glitch for people not getting results, saying they failed to forward results to physicians, but Sides was admitted to NCH on March 16, and still can’t get her results.

“Today, they told me it would be a violation of HIPAA laws to give me any information even though I’m the patient,” she said.

“I’ve called both LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics; as of today, neither one of them have any information on me.”

Right now, Sides is left in the dark – and at home in isolation.

“I’m stuck. I’m totally stuck.”

NCH wouldn’t talk with WINK News specifically about Sides’ case because of privacy laws, but they did say that all test results are going back to the physician who ordered them as they come in, and her physician will contact her when those results are in.

Reporter: Gina Tomlinson

Writer: Jackie Winchester

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