Providence has begun a pilot program to offer quick COVID-19 testing for health care workers and others at high risk of contracting the virus.
People who are interested are asked to book a virtual care appointment with a Providence provider. If that person determines your symptoms indicate you should be tested, you’ll be sent to the company’s ExpressCare location in the Indian Trail neighborhood. Brenda Clark is the clinical manager there.
“The patient comes in and stays in their car, for their safety and everyone else’s," said Brenda Clark, the clinical manager there. "We explain how to do their swab. They insert kind of like a Q-tip, but it’s longer and not so big, into both nasal areas of their nose. We bring it inside and we run the test and it can take up to three minutes to get a positive or 13 minutes to get a negative.”
Clark says this test is a little different than other Covid tests. You don’t have to drive the swab all the way into the back of your nose to get a sample.
If it’s a positive test, Clark says a Providence caregiver will follow up later with instructions as to how to care for yourself.
Providence charges $49 for a virtual visit, if you don’t have insurance, plus $60 for the test. The testing location is open from nine-to-six, seven days a week. You can go to Virtual.providence.org to start the process.