Doylestown Health Surpasses Major Milestone in COVID Testing

On March 17, 2020, Doylestown Health opened the first drive-through COVID testing site in Bucks County. Almost two years into the historic and challenging pandemic, Doylestown Health has resulted more than 110,000 tests for COVID-19.

“We rose to the challenge in the very early days of the pandemic to assess the health status of individuals in our community, and ultimately contribute to public health surveillance,” said Scott Levy, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. “We pivoted operations to fulfill a need for testing at the beginning of the disease, throughout the subsequent surges and to this day.”

Doylestown Health’s initial testing site was located in a drive-through tent on the hospital campus. On its first day of service, March 17, 2020, COVID cases in Bucks County numbered five and there were just 5,000 cases in the U.S. Results of the test required four days or more; 26 specimens were collected that first day.

Doylestown Health consolidated all outpatient testing for COVID-19 at a central drive-through location on Oct. 14, 2020 at 584 West Swamp Road (Route 313), Doylestown, Later that month, Doylestown Health began offering rapid PCR testing for COVID-19, which was able to be processed on-site resulting in a significant improvement in turn-around time and convenience for patients (reduction from 72 hours to 1 hour).

The tests continue to be processed on location at the drive-through site. Testing is done through reservations, and a physician order is required to bill a patient’s insurance.

“Doylestown Health’s commitment to the health and well-being of the community has not wavered since those early, uncertain days of COVID,” added Dr. Levy. “The entire Doylestown Health team continues to respond deftly to the challenges of this devastating disease, retooling processes and shifting priorities where needed to meet the needs not only for testing, but for vaccination as well.”

Doylestown Health continues to deliver COVID-19 vaccine to our community in a variety of ways. Regular vaccination clinics have been held Doylestown Health Urgent Care, and at on-site at locations that have included Grundy Hall and Christ’s Home.

Doylestown Health has administered more than 75,000 doses of vaccine to our general community, vulnerable groups (e.g. comorbidities, elderly, and socioeconomically vulnerable), children 12 years and older, healthcare workers, and our patients. Since the first Pfizer doses of COVID vaccine became available on December 17, 2020, Doylestown Hospital in collaboration with our physician community and under the direction of the State Department of Health, made the commitment to provide the vaccine to the community in which we serve.

Doylestown Health also took the lead in providing monoclonal antibody treatments to outpatients with COVID to help prevent hospitalization, and has administered about 1,700 antibody infusions. Collaboration among Medical Research, Pharmacy and many Doylestown Health physicians continues to assess new and existing drugs and research opportunities for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.