Hershey Medical Center to add rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities and rename tests

Hershey Medical Center’s Clinical Laboratory will implement a second rapid automated instrument for SARS-CoV-2 testing, adding to its COVID-19 testing capabilities, on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

The new testing instrument is one of the fastest high throughput SARS-CoV-2 platforms available and will provide expedited test results. Turnaround time will be two and a half hours or less from specimen arrival in the lab. It will supplement Hershey Medical Center’s rapid manual polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.

The current rapid PCR test “COVID-19 Coronavirus PCR In House” will be deactivated Feb. 3, and replaced in all Cerner PowerPlans with the “COVID-19 Coronavirus Same Day” order. This is for order in the Inpatient catalogs.

The change of the test name to “COVID-19 Coronavirus Same Day” ensures that staff can better identify the speed of result to the ordering clinician – Same Day or Next Day. Turnaround time for the “COVID-19 Coronavirus Next Day” test is currently 24 to 48 hours. All COVID-19 diagnostic tests that come to the lab are now performed in house, making internal and external designations unnecessary.

Additional communication about this change will be in the CareConnect weekly newsletter.

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