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Traci Barnett, Middletown Community Foundation executive director, said the request from Atrium for a rapid testing device was one the MCF was “motivated to approve quickly.”
Dr. Keith Bricking, president of Atrium Medical Center, said “one of the greatest challenges” the hospital faces has been the limited access to testing and often slow turnaround times for results. Now with onsite rapid testing devices, Atrium will be better equipped to help the community, he said.
“We will be able to make real time decisions allowing us to accurately track the disease, better manage PPE and minimize exposure,” he said.
Turnaround for results will be reduced to just under an hour, an important factor as the hospital prepares for elective surgeries to return, he said.
“Our ability to help Atrium at this time with something as important as testing is exactly the intention of our Coronavirus Emergency Fund and we are very proud to assist our community in this manner,” said Patricia Miller Gage, president of the MCF Board of Trustees.
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The Middletown Community Foundation Coronavirus Emergency Fund has made it possible for the foundation to pour more than $60,000 into efforts like the IDNOW testing device, stimulus assistance for downtown businesses and technology upgrades for local schools to conduct online instruction.
Atrium Medical Center has ordered additional testing devices and hopes to have them in-house and ready to utilize by June.
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