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Leaders of Rhode Island’s nursing home trade groups say some nursing home workers are having trouble getting tested for the coronavirus at CVS Heath’s rapid-testing site outside the Twin River Casino in Lincoln.
The drive-through test site, which state officials had a capacity to test about 1,000 people per day, was was supposed to be available, without an appointment, to workers in nursing homes, among the hardest-hit by the virus. Governor Gina Raimondo said at a news conference on April 15 that the CVS rapid-testing site would set aside several hundred slots for workers in nursing homes.
But nursing home administrators report that their employees are being turned away when they show up at the CVS site to be tested, said Scott Fraser, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association, which represents 63 of the state’s 81 for-profit nursing homes. A couple of staffers from an Aquidneck Island nursing home drove to Lincoln one morning this week, Fraser said, only to be told when they arrived that the testing site was closed. The staffers were told to come back between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., he said, but they couldn’t do that because they had to go to work.
James Nyberg, executive director of LeadingAgeRI, a trade group representing 15 nonprofit nursing homes, said nursing home employees had been told “we have hit our daily limit for testing healthcare workers,” and were sent away. For this nursing home, he said, it took 4 to 5 days to “blanket test” residents and staff there will not be tested until next Tuesday. Nyberg said state health officials told the nursing homes that they need to spread out testing “so we don’t overwhelm the labs.”
Another nursing home, Nyberg said, reported health care workers had difficulty getting an appointment at Twin River. In some cases, he said, it was reportedly faster to get tested at one of the state field sites.
State health officials are directing workers from the hardest-hit nursing homes to be tested at the CVS site, said Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken. He said a high volume at the testing site could be why some people were asked to come back later.
A CVS Health spokesman declined comment, referring questions to state officials.
Raimondo said at a news briefing on Friday that the state is currently testing about 3,000 residents a day.
-Lynn Arditi, health reporter, larditi@thepublicsradio.org
