COLUMBUS, Ohio — When hundreds of people showed up to get tested for COVID-19 on Alum Creek Drive last week, one of those looking for a quick test result was Deirdra Dooley.
“I was very symptomatic when I arrived to get my test. Hacking cough, runny nose, fever alternating between chills and sweating and that sort of thing,” she said.
Dooley waited for test results that never came. She called the AccuReference Laboratories to get answers and said she got nowhere.
“I got really nervous about it,” she said. “I have an 81-year-old mother and I’m her primary caregiver.”
Nurse's Heart Paramedics is the group that organized the drive-up site where Dooley got tested.
“We have a contract with a lab that states they have to have lab results within the 36-to-48-hour time frame,” Austin Mahoney said.
Mahoney said Accureference explained to him the reason for the delay was the result of too many positive tests.
“Those positive tests have to be run four separate times by four separate people,” Mahoney said.
He says the lab didn't have enough people to run the tests.
Mahoney gave 10TV a letter from the lab that says, “Due to the holiday weekend, and an unusually large call and email volume, we are experiencing unforeseen delays.”
Despite the issues, Nurse's Heart Paramedics continues to work with the lab at a pop-up testing site on Tuesday, but that relationship is coming to an end and it’s looking for a new lab to work with.
“We're not going to accept this going forward,” Mahoney said.