Resource: COVID-19 Testing Guidance for Employers

The following letter was issued to Hillsdale County employers via the Hillsdale County Economic Development Partnership on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.

May 12, 2020

 

To: Hillsdale County Employers

Re: COVID-19 Testing; Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT)

 

To our community employers:

On April 20, 2020, Joneigh Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, sent a letter to healthcare providers and healthcare facilities.

In this letter, Dr. Khaldun outlined the need for Michigan to triple or even quadruple the daily number of COVID-19 tests completed. She asked for partnership with healthcare providers, primary care providers and all other clinicians across our state to accomplish this increase in testing. In her background statement, she recognized the limited testing availability due to current supply constraints for specimen collection materials—particularly swabs. Hillsdale Hospital is diligently working with our suppliers, but we are experiencing limited product allocation for swabs.

There is, however, significant available testing capacity through NxGen Laboratories. Located in Grand Rapids, Mich., NxGen is fully certified and its testing method has received FDA approval for Emergency Use Authorization. NxGen can provide collection materials, shipping from the collection site to their laboratory and a 48-hour turnaround on results. If you are interested in learning more about this, please contact Naveen Kamireddi, NxGen’s vice president of operations at covid.onboard@nxgenmdx.com.

Michigan.gov is also a helpful resource, where you can find the Michigan Coronavirus Disease 2019 Response and access the COVID-19 Test Finder for information on testing sites near you.

Additionally, Hillsdale Hospital Laboratory will no longer provide Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT), effective immediately, due to the sharp decline for requests from employers over the past few years. Hillsdale Hospital will continue to provide non-DOT chain of custody urine drug screens. Blood alcohol testing is also available.

Thank you for your understanding and your partnership during this unprecedented crisis. If you have any questions, please call the Hillsdale Hospital Laboratory at (517) 437-5164.

 

Regards,