key: cord-0950497-600am3mq
authors: Hsiang, Walter R; Forman, Howard P; Jain, Siddharth; Khunte, Akshay; Jin, Grace; Yousman, Laurie; Mosier-Mills, Alison; Najem, Michael; Wiznia, Daniel
title: Scarce COVID-19 Testing Capabilities at Urgent Care Centers in States with Greatest Disease Burden
date: 2020-03-27
journal: nan
DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.22.20040923
sha: 87b5e12f77e3f83bb38dc81261e9fbf0525328f8
doc_id: 950497
cord_uid: 600am3mq

As of March 22, 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has reached nearly 30,000. While rapid and accessible diagnosis is paramount to monitoring and reducing the spread of disease, COVID-19 testing capabilities across the U.S. remain constrained. For many individuals, urgent care centers (UCCs) may offer the most accessible avenue to be tested. Through a phone survey, we describe the COVID-19 testing capabilities at UCCs and provide a snapshot highlighting the limited COVID-19 testing capabilities at UCCs in states with the greatest disease burden.

As of March 22, 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has reached nearly 30,000. 1 While rapid and accessible diagnosis is paramount to monitoring and reducing the spread of disease, COVID-19 testing capabilities across the U.S. remain constrained. For many individuals, urgent care centers (UCCs) may offer the most accessible avenue to be tested.

Using a phone survey, we describe the COVID-19 testing capabilities of UCCs in states with the greatest disease burden.

We identified ten states with the highest COVID-19 caseload as of March 19 according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 2 25 UCCs, defined as walk-in clinics in ambulatory medical facilities, were randomly selected and called from each state using the Urgent Care Association "Find an Urgent Care" directory. UCCs were classified into independent, hospital/health network, and academic categories.

Using a standardized survey script (Figure 1 ), trained investigators asked UCC receptionists about COVID-19 testing ability, testing criteria, time to test results, costs of tests and visits for insured/uninsured patients, and test referrals. All 250 calls were made on March 20 and were limited to 1 minute to minimize occupying clinic resources.

Of 250 UCCs contacted, 57 (22.8%) offered COVID-19 testing. Hospital/health networkaffiliated UCCs were more likely to offer COVID-19 tests compared to independent UCCs (odds ratio 3.69, 95% confidence interval 1.94-7.01, p<0.0001).

Of UCCs that offered testing, 56 (98.2%) required the patient to be symptomatic (typically fever and respiratory symptoms) and 2 (0.4%) required a primary care physician . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.

The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted March 27, 2020. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.

The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted March 27, 2020. This report has limitations. The small number of UCCs contacted per state may not accurately represent the state's urgent care climate. Additionally, the rapidly changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic may affect these findings. However, this study serves as an important snapshot that highlights the limited COVID-19 testing capabilities at UCCs in the most heavily burdened states.

. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)

The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted March 27, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.22.20040923 doi: medRxiv preprint

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