MADISON, Wis. - UW Health’s lab announced on Friday, Feb. 26 that it performed its first COVID-19 test at University Hospital on March 19, 2020. Almost a year later, they have run nearly 200,000 COVID-19 tests.
UW Health is now recognizing the efforts of the medical technologists, specimen receiving technicians, pathology faculty, development specialists, lab quality and many lab leaders who have often worked 80-100 hours per week to achieve this remarkable feat. Some weeks they ran as many as 1,100 COVID-19 test per day.
In early March 2020, the state lab was the only one that could test for COVID-19 and supplies were limited. Patient placement and decision-making for a care team was difficult without a COVID-19 test results, and UW Health needed more tests and faster results so frontline workers could provide accurate, safe, and quality patient care.
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The Molecular Diagnostic Lab at University Hospital, part of the UW Health Laboratory Services, began running COVID-19 tests in March and soon started to operate 24/7.
In addition to operating 24/7, the lab had to constantly evolve as the landscape of testing changed to incorporate new options like the addition of saliva tests and demand rose for faster results.
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