Supported by a $222,589 federal grant, the Community Health Center of Franklin County has opened a COVID-19 testing site in Orange where anyone from across the county and beyond who wants a test for the virus can get one, even if they don’t have insurance or symptoms.
“We’ve got the capabilities, so we wanted to give people some peace of mind,” Community Health Center of Franklin County Chief Operating Officer Jessica Calabrese said.
Two tents will be set up in the upper parking lot of the facility at 450 West River St. each Thursday so that testing can begin at 8 a.m. each Friday, Calabrese said. People started registering for the first testing day early last week and arrived May 8 for their scheduled appointments, she said. The same thing will happen again on Friday. People must register to be tested.
“We served 44 people that first day,” Calabrese said. “We wanted to start out slowly by scheduling six people per hour from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Within 2½ days of advertising the testing, Calabrese said the Community Health Center was “booked solid.” She said the center decided it can test 60 people a day, and will begin doing so Friday.
“One of the reasons we started slowly was because we didn’t know how many people would be interested,” she said. “We’ve got plenty of interested people. Another reason is because we wanted to give testers some time, and we weren’t sure what exactly it was going to take.”
Calabrese said she’ll be meeting with the team this week to talk about the possibility of testing more than one day a week, if there is a need as time goes on.
The center will test anyone age 10 and older — children must have a parent or guardian with them. She said they are testing everyone, from Community Health Center of Franklin County patients, to other health systems’ patients, to those living in high-risk communities, from migrant farm workers and people living in communal situations to first responders.
Calabrese said people drive into the parking lot and head for the first tent where they check in, verify their insurance information (if they have insurance), and provide some other information. Then they move in a circle to the second tent, where they are tested.
“It’s really quick and easy,” she said. “We ask the person’s name, date of birth, contact information and insurance information. If they don’t have insurance, no problem.”
Calabrese said no one receives a bill. If the person has insurance, the insurance is billed for the lab test only, not the testing. If a person doesn’t have insurance, the lab bills the state.
“It takes three to four days to get the results,” she said. “If someone tests positive, they will get several phone calls. Everyone gets the initial call to let them know whether they are positive or negative. Then, if they are positive, they’ll get information about what to do next.”
Calabrese said those who test positive will also be contacted by the state Department of Public Health and one of the county’s public health nurses, as well as their primary care physician, if they have one.
“They’ll be inundated with calls, but that’s important to keep them and others safe,” she said.
Calabrese said the center is not yet administering antibody tests.
“We have to make sure they are reliable before we start doing so,” she said. “They aren’t as available as the tests yet. We’re hesitant to roll them out until we know the science behind them is good. We’ll probably eventually offer those as well.”
The center isn’t doing this type of testing at its location in Greenfield because Baystate Franklin Medical Center is providing testing, she said, and the center didn’t want to duplicate services as long as everyone is being served.
She said testing became more available when the Community Health Center of Franklin County partnered with Quest Diagnostics lab. She said the lab it had originally partnered with became very busy, so it wasn’t so much about how many tests it had, but how many the lab could process in a timely manner.
“If we find the interest continues, we’ll ramp it up even more,” Calabrese said. “We’ll see week to week.”
“As Massachusetts continues to expand our testing and contact tracing capabilities, it is critical that we provide our community health centers with the money they need to protect public health,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern said when the $222,589 in federal funding to support the Community Health Center of Franklin County was announced Monday. “We cannot have a healthy economy without healthy workers and families. I’m glad we were able to overcome Republican opposition and get this important funding included in the (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) CARES Act. The testing and tracing going on at our community health centers is absolutely critical, and we must continue to support and empower them however we can.”
McGovern said Health Resources and Services Administration funded health centers can use the funding to expand the range of testing and testing-related activities to best address the needs of their local communities. The money can be used to purchase protective equipment, train staff, procure and administer tests, and expand contact tracing of COVID-19 patients.
Testing in Orange is done in the Community Health Center of Franklin County’s parking lot every Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Calabrese said people should keep checking the website (bit.ly/2WKYPrD) to see if the number of testing days a week increases. For more information and to register, call 413-325-8501 or visit the website.