Advertisement

Peterborough COVID-19 drive-thru test centre first in Ontario to digitize lab requisitions

Click to play video: 'Peterborough acquires first-of-its kind device to speed up COVID-19 testing'
Peterborough acquires first-of-its kind device to speed up COVID-19 testing
The device scans the back of your health card or driver's licence, and produces a barcode that is attached to your COVID-19 swab. Noor Ibrahim gets a first look at how it works, and how it makes the testing process faster. – Sep 11, 2020

New handheld technology being used at Peterborough’s drive-thru COVID-19 testing centre aims to improve the quality and performance of testing for patients and labs.

According to Peterborough Regional Health Centre, the drive-thru clinic is the first in Ontario to implement the devices which digitize COVID-19 lab requisitions.

The devices were first used on Sept. 2 at the clinic at the Kinsmen Civic Centre and continue to be used since the clinic relocated to the Northcrest Arena parking lot on Tuesday.

In the first five days of use, the handheld devices scanned health cards, driver’s licences and related identification of 1,523 people, the hospital noted.

The latest health and medical news emailed to you every Sunday.

The project is a partnership between Ontario Health, Peterborough County/City Paramedics, PRHC, Peterborough Public Health and the City of Peterborough.

Story continues below advertisement
A new handheld device digitizes lab requisitions. PRHC

The hospital says devices will lead to more complete and “higher-quality” data when capturing patient information and lead to faster processing and easier matching of the requisition to the test.

The devices will also mean more legible requisitions, making it “easier for laboratory staff to process each test,” the hospital stated.

The drive-thru clinic is held weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. People are advised to bring their Ontario Health Card and driver’s licence. Test results can be accessed on the province’s online portal or by calling your healthcare provider.

As of Wednesday evening, there was just one active case in Peterborough Public Health’s jurisdiction. There have been 106 cases overall.

Advertisement

Sponsored content

AdChoices