Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: Allegheny Health Network Creating Thousands Of Test Kits – CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Allegheny Health Network is creating thousands of test kits in preparation for a possible surge of coronavirus cases.

“The people you have on site today include nurses, include physicians, include other clinical people, include data analytics and project managers,” said Kelly Glass, the vice president of Strategy, Operations, and Shared Services at AGH.

It’s a critical time for Allegheny County.

With more and more people testing positive for coronavirus, additional testing is essential.

The assembling of the kits is happening inside the Highmark Health Penn Avenue Plaza.

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

“This is in response to a shortage of commercially available specimen collection kits,” said Glass.

“And so rather than waiting to see whether or not these vendors, through supply chain, can bring these items to us, we started to take items individually and putting them together,” said Dr. Brian Parker, chief quality & learning officer for AHN.

Doctors say it’s important for those experiencing symptoms, such as a fever or shortness of breath, to get tested.

The last thing they want is to waste test kits.

“Because right now, the big shortage in the country is the swabs that use to get the sample to send to the lab,” said Parker.

KDKA learned workers will be putting these kits together all next week, as well.

Source: Coronavirus In Pittsburgh: Allegheny Health Network Creating Thousands Of Test Kits – CBS Pittsburgh

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