Baptist Health Begins At-Home Coronavirus Testing After Receiving FDA Approval
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Baptist Health South Florida's Miami Cancer Institute is the first hospital lab in Florida to get approval from the FDA for a newly-developed coronavirus test.
"When the COVID-19 crisis hit us, [we realized] we really need to start in-house testing [to avoid] a critical shortage," said Dr. Edwin Gould, Chief of Pathology for the Miami Cancer Institute.
That critical shortage has been made clear by the lines of people waiting at Hard Rock Stadium once testing criteria was loosened to anyone who has symptoms or has been exposed to someone who tested positive.
Even as capacity nearly doubled from 400 to 750 people a day, hundreds still lined up for miles. Many spent several hours waiting in their cars before they could get a test.
"Because there is such a backlog, we chose an alternative route to at least help and that is to perform our own in-house lab set," said Dr. Gould.
Dr. Gould is trying to add to the state's numbers of people being tested, while reducing the time it takes to get results.
"The key thing to treating is first identifying all patients people who have it [in a] very timely fashion," said Dr. Gould.
Around 40-80 people are being tested a day with the capacity for more in the coming days. People will have results within 24 hours.
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