Northwell Health invests $30 million into coronavirus testing

Robert Pelaez
A Northwell Health Labs technologist inserts specimens into a diagnostic testing machine. (Photo courtesy of Northwell Health)

Northwell Health Labs announced a $30 million investment to increase coronavirus testing throughout the state, despite low positivity rates throughout New York over the past two weeks.

The investment, according to Northwell officials, will be used to fund multiple testing platforms to increase the hospitals’ ability to ramp up volume and mitigate cupply chain disruptions if a second wave of the virus were to strike.

“Our goal has been to deploy at scale as much testing as possible, as quickly as possible, so we were among the first labs to implement, validate and evaluate performance characteristics for most of these tests,” Dwatne Breining, executive director of Northwell Health Labs said. “Early in the pandemic, it was unclear which manufacturer would be able to supply quality testing at scale, so we ran with them all. As various supply chain issues have emerged, maintaining multiple testing platforms has been a successful mitigation strategy.”

Northwell recently also purchased high-throughput diagnostic testing analyzers and cartridge-type tests.  The company is also using in-lab “wet” antibody chemistry tests.  As of today, the healthcare system processes around 7,000 molecular nucleic acid amplification tests along with 3,000 antibody tests daily. 

Tha lab processes tests for Northwell’s 19 hospitals, 52 urgent care centers, and more than 800 outpatient facilities throughout Long Island, New York City, and the Hudson Valley region. 

Northwell labs are focused on eliminating false positive results forth virus, which have the chance to become much more impactful regarding the closure of classrooms and schools.  This is being conducted by developing a two-step algorithm for retesting isolated positives compared to clustered positives.

“Most testing today is for screening purposes, so we need to mitigate the potential effects of sporadic false-positive results,” James Crawford, senior vice president of Northwell’s laboratory services said. “These are more likely to occur now that the New York area positivity rate is below 1 percent.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Northwell has been on the frontlines of the battle between the general population and the virus.

In March, Northwell Health’s research branch has rolled out three clinical trials in the ongoing efforts to combat the disease. The research was conducted jointly by Feinstein in conjunction with three biopharmaceutical companies: Gilead Sciences, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi. 

In May, Northwell expanded its coronavirus testing to churches throughout Long Island, New York City, and Westchester County.  In less than a month, Northwell administered more than 23,000 antibody and diagnostic tests at 24 churches located in primarily minority communities.

Results have shown that the prevalence of the coronavirus is disproiportionately higher within Hispanic and African-American communities throughout the city and Long Island.

Northwell has also extended their outreach to other parts of the nation where the virus remains a prominent threat.

In late July, nurses Kristine Chan, Anjanette Rosario, Shiney Paul, and Timothy Verhey from Northwell’s North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Lauren Ann Henry from Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park traveled to Houston, Texas to extend a helping hand.

“We came down here together as a team,” Paul said. “Back in New York, we were hit very hard by COVID-19 at the beginning. We felt it was our time to give back to the communities that are going through this now. It’s been an honor to work with Gov. Cuomo’s team and my co-workers.”

Cuomo announced on June 16 that New York state established two church testing sites in Houston.  The locations, Cuomo said, were in “highly-impacted minority communities” and have the capacity for conducting up to 1,000 tests per day.

An initial 20 healthcare workers and public health experts were sent down to Houston to facilitate and oversee the operation before the five nurses took their talents and expertise to a state that has seen one of the most drastic upticks in confirmed cases over the past month.

 

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