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Testing COVID-19 Samples, Step by Step, Inside the Hartford HealthCare Lab
April 23, 2020
In hospitals, nursing homes and facilities across Connecticut, thousands of Hartford Healthcare workers are working tirelessly to combat COVID-19. Not far from Hartford Hospital, another team is quietly carrying out a critical task that supports their colleagues on the frontlines.
At the Hartford HealthCare laboratory, the microbiology team is performing COVID-19 testing for Hartford HealthCare patients and employees. The lab provides microbiology testing for five of seven hospitals within the Hartford HealthCare system.
With a capacity to complete nearly 200 tests a day, the lab is in operation 24 hours a day to process the specimens. The lab is turning around results in 24 to 36 hours.
A specimen’s journey starts at one of the Hartford HealthCare drive-up testing sites. An oropharyngeal (oral) or nasopharyngeal (nasal) sample is collected, then transported to the lab receiving area. From there, it is sent to the Hartford HealthCare Microbiology Laboratory in Newington for testing.
At the lab, the specimen is heat-inactivated to ensure the virus is no longer infectious, protecting the laboratory technologists performing the procedure, or assay. The specimen is then placed onto an automated extraction instrument and loaded onto a dual amplification and detection instrument.
Creating, or validating, an assay is something that the lab team had been preparing for in advance of the Coronavirus arrival in Connecticut. Giuseppe Mignosa, Regional Director of Laboratory Services, says the staff understood the urgency: “The m2000 is the molecular instrument we are using for the testing. As soon as the FDA cleared the m2000 assay for testing, we put it into action.”
Mignosa says the skill and expertise of the team demonstrated during this crisis exemplifies what they are trained to do.
“This could be the biggest moment in our lab’s history,” he said. “It typically takes a year to develop a test. We have been ready for this. We are here to support patient care.”
In and out of the lab, the collaboration of several teams is on display.
“The phlebotomy team continues the important work as the front-end patient facing lab staff,” said Mignosa. “Everyone is stepping up to the plate – coming to work every day, interacting with patients. All lab staff is performing other necessary blood testing for all inpatients in house. COVID-19 notwithstanding, we serve as the central lab of Hartford HealthCare.”
For Mignosa, it comes down to a simple mission they’ve had all along.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team – everybody working toward the same goal of supporting patient care,” he said. “Our team has worked tirelessly, putting in extra hours, focused on this virus and providing the test results as efficiently as possible. This is why we do what we do.”
To learn more about lab services at Hartford HealthCare, click here.
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