By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Dr. Rex Degner really wants to use his skills as a pathologist to help Hutchinson Regional Medical Center combat the coronavirus, but right now he can't.
"Testing is dear to my heart," Degner said. "It breaks my heart to see the laboratory profession not be up to speed on this. The ability to test is an absolute game changer in how we not only treat the disease, but in how we staff for it, how we socially isolate, the whole business. We are in contact with our Congressman. We are in contact with representatives of various testing industries, waiting to get the material to test."
It's not a case of a lack of equipment capacity, at least here in Hutchinson.
"We have plenty of the machines that can run the tests here in the hospital and in the community," Degner said. "The problem is getting the actual kits that are specific for this particular virus. They are in short supply. They are making them as rapidly as they can. Unfortunately, I believe these are being diverted to other hotspots including New York and the coasts and Louisiana. While we call them daily, asking and begging for some, we still do not have the ability to do a rapid test here on site."
Having a rapid diagnostic test would really help to know the slope of the curve of not only infections, but also overall hospital resource use.
"There are two different tests that are important," Degner said. "Two different answers that we want to know. The test that we're most in urgent need of is on the diagnostic side and to have one that we can get in a rapid manner. Right now, we have five or six patients in the hospital that are suspected to have COVID disease. They're in our isolation rooms, using up a lot of protective equipment as we go in and out of those rooms. If we had an answer if they were definite COVID patients or just have a fever for another reason, we could much better utilize our resources."
Right now, the hospital appears to have enough personal protective equipment to deal with the increasing caseload, but it is something they continue to monitor daily.