LANSING, Mich. — As coronavirus tests become more widely available, hospitals have become even busier.
Sparrow's St. Lawrence campus tests more than 100 people every day.
Patients are tested while staying inside their cars.
"We've got one of our runners inside that comes out and gathers all the information for us, gets their drivers license and insurance cards and get their birthday, and then we verify that the stickers are correct and then comes the fun part," said phlebotomist David Zerbe.
After the sample is taken, it's put in a refrigerator. It's then picked up and taken to Sparrow's lab for testing.
"It's about a four hour test once it gets to this site so there's all the logistics for getting it here, as well," said outreach operations manager Curtis Howard.
It's a complicated procedure, but to put it simply, scientists separate the samples with 96 of them going into one tray.
Scientists add a solution and put the tray into a special machine which then shows a graph with the results.
The lab does more than 400 tests every day, which is why many people have to wait a few days to get their results.
"It is very time consuming. We take a lot of time ensuring that each patient's sample has the correct result," said clinical laboratory scientist Pam Vandervest.
If you feel like you need to get a test done, please remember you have to first call your doctor and get an order.
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