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Mercy has announced they will open a drive-through testing site for coronavirus (COVID-19) on Saturday, March 14, at the earliest, at the Mercy Virtual Care Center (15740 S. Outer Forty) in Chesterfield. After Missouri Governor Mike Parson and St. Louis County officials announced the first COVID-19 case in St. Louis on Saturday, March 7, Mercy's emergency department chair told SLM the emergency department “has been inundated with phone calls from patients just asking what to do and how to be tested.”
Patients who have a fever of at least 100.4 degrees and respiratory symptoms including cough or shortness of breath will be able to be tested at The Mercy Test Collection Site. (In the release, Mercy noted that patients with COVID-19 do not have a runny nose or nasal congestion.) Before visiting the testing center, Patients must call Mercy’s coronavirus support line at 314-251-0500 "to be screened and if appropriate proceed to the test collection site."
“We will only provide screening for those who meet these requirements because testing prior to the appearance of symptoms can result in a false negative,” Dr. Keith Starke, Mercy’s chief quality officer said in a statement.
According to the release, Mercy will collect samples onsite, send them off to their designated lab, the state health department or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and results may take several days. A cost will be associated with the test, Mercy says, but at this time it is "unknown if commercial insurance or government funding will cover any of the cost."
“This drive-through testing site will prevent unnecessary exposure to our patients and caregivers in our hospitals and clinics,” Donn Sorensen, Mercy’s executive vice president of operations who is leading COVID-19 response across Mercy, also said in the release. He added that the direction of patients to this site will help limit traffic to Mercy's hospitals and clinics, to keep other patients, visitors, and co-workers safe.
Mercy is also working with BJC HealthCare. SSM Health, and state and local health departments to create additional testing sites in St. Louis and has plans to open more test collection sites in Mercy's four states (Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma).
For more information about coronavirus in St. Louis, read our live-updated story here and follow our coverage here.
