Health care providers say they will soon start doing more coronavirus testing, even on an outpatient basis, but that still may not mean that everyone who thinks they need screening will get it.

And those who are tested but not sick enough to be hospitalized will be expected to remain in isolation until they receive results, even if their symptoms improve.

Because state health officials have a high bar for whom they will test, Franciscan Health has sent 10 to 20 tests to commercial labs, said Dr. Christopher Doehring, vice president of medical affairs. So far none has returned positive.

Even though the hospital will use commercial labs for patients whom state officials have declined to test, Franciscan Health doctors have beenpretty conservative about whom they will recommend be tested, he said. They will only screen those who have had a potential exposure to someone infected and have symptoms consistent with the disease known as COVID-19.

Anyone who suspects that he or she has been infected is urged to call ahead to a health provider before coming in for testing.

“We’re not just offering testing for someone who comes in and has a weak story about their concern," Doehring said. "This is not for the worried well. This is not for just alleviating someone’s unjustified anxiety.”

U.S. government health care officials have come under fire for offering only limited testing in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in this country. The first tests proved unreliable, and it was not until a few weeks ago that many states, including Indiana, received testing kits.

State health officials said that a CDC kit could yield up to 1,000 tests. But on Friday, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said that a limited supply of reagents has restricted how many tests can be done off of one kit. If tests are done one at a time, she said, that limits how many tests can be done. A reagent is a substance used to perform the lab test.

Box said the state lab is now running a series of tests together to maximize resources.

"We were trying to run them, you know, like three times, four times a day, but it was using our reagents so fast that now we're trying to really make sure that we batch them together and run them together," she said.

She added that the CDC has sent additional tests, and "we have the ability to test well over 100 people now."

In all, Indiana has tested 73 people, 12 of whom have had positive tests.

But Box said in the future there could be additional people with mild cases of COVID-19 whom the state opts not to test.

If someone has a known exposure to COVID-19 and develops mild symptoms, the state could wind up deciding not to screen that person, Box said.

"If they call us with symptoms, and they don't need to be seen in the emergency room and admitted, we're probably not going to test them. We're going to say yep, it probably is COVID-19," she said.

Hospitals also have tried to limit whom they recommend be tested, following the CDC guidelines that advise it be done only for those who are severely ill or who have had a known exposure, either through travel or an infected person.

Commercial tests can take up to a week to yield results, and during that time people who did not require hospitalization are advised to self-isolate, Doehring said. Should a result come back positive, the hospital will report that finding to the state Health Department.

Roche Diagnostics on Fridayannounced that it has received emergency authorization for a rapid test of its own that will give results in three and a half hours. It is not known, however, how long it will be before the test is widely available.

Academic health centers such as Indiana University Health also are hoping to develop their own capability to do testing, said Dr. Douglas Webb, medical director for infection control for Indiana University Health. IU Health hopes to have its own test up and running by the end of next week. Results could take 12 to 24 hours.

For now, the hospital system has done a limited number of tests, he said.

IU Health has screened more than 1,000 people online through its virtual health app with a special link introduced last Saturday.

Even once IU Health has its own test, the health system will likely prioritize who does and does not get tested, looking for those most likely to be infected, as well as patients who are hospitalized with severe illness and no other known cause, he said.

Still, the availability of all these tests will likely lead to increased testing — and increased detection of cases.

Widespread testing could give health care providers and officials a better idea of the scope of the outbreak as well as how to squelch it.

“The biggest frustration for us as clinicians has been not being able to test patients, and I think that will soon be corrected,” Webb said. “Not having the capability to test has hampered a lot of things we would normally do."

Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at 317-444-6354 or shari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.