Off-Site COVID-19 Testing Toolkit

Between June 8th and August 10, 2020, Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement and NRHI member and research partner, Qualidigm, conducted close to thirty interviews with leaders of off-site COVID-19 testing centers (OSCTCs) and public health departments across the United States to identify and disseminate current best practices for off-site testing.

Questions addressed access to testing among vulnerable populations, the alignment of OSCTCs with public health entities, community-based organizations, and other health systems to effectively address the testing needs, limitations, and opportunities across the population.

After extensive qualitative analysis, we developed this Off-Site Testing Toolkit, which includes fourteen major considerations, each with 7-10 sub-themes.

For convenience, consideration titles are clickable and link to individual sections in the toolkit.

1_PatientPop

1. Identify and prioritize the population to be tested

2_Partners

2. Identify and mobilize your partners

3_Type

3. Determine the type of OSCTC

4_TypeofTest

4. Offer the right type of test

5_Laboratory

5. Adapt to variations in laboratory capacity and turnaround time

6_Staffing

6. Staff Required for OSCTC

7_Efficiencies

7. Build efficiencies into your OSCTC

8_CommAwareness

8. Promote positive patient experience and community awareness

9_PatientAccess

9. Address potential patient access limitations

10_PatientResults

10. Manage patient results

11_Weather

11. Plan for weather extremes

12_PPE

12. Provide PPE to staff

13_Financial

13. Financial viability/ sustainability

14_BroaderRole

14. Explore a broader role for your OSCTC

Methodology

Additional resources

Acknowledgements

OSCTCs project hub

Toolkit summary

Site design tool

Innovation series

* This toolkit is based on a project the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) and NRHI research partner and member, Qualidigm, conducted between March and August 2020.