Sansum Clinic spokesperson Jill Fonte confirmed that “drive-through” testing — more officially known as “car-based testing” — will be made available for the COVID-19 virus beginning Tuesday morning, but by appointment only and only at the recommendation of a patient’s health-care provider. Fonte stressed that people cannot show up without an appointment.
Sansum is one of two providers that will be offering “car-based” testing. (The term “drive-through” causes severe heartburn among health-care providers, as it conjures the possibility of long lines of anxious members of the public for whom the test might not prove to be medically appropriate.) Sansum is dispatching a team of 5-10 employees to the task. They will be stationed in a trailer outside the Pesetas Lane clinic space where the Sansum Urgent Care is located. Staff will test patients with appointments in their vehicles. They will be wearing gloves, gowns, goggles, a face shield, and a mask.
“We don’t know the extent of this project, as it is still an experiment,” said Fonte, “to see if we can make this model work.”