KESQ goes inside the testing lab for coronavirus at Eisenhower Health

As of April 22, Eisenhower Health has tested over 1,400 patients for coronavirus.

In a KESQ exclusive, News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay brings us inside a lab here in the valley where some of those tests are getting analyzed.

"What I’m doing is I’m setting up the COVID testing for these patients,” Roy Brown a clinical laboratory scientist at Eisenhower Health told News Channel 3 from inside the laboratory.

Brown handles up to 50 coronavirus tests every day but that number is expected to increase with a growing number of people being tested.

“It’s something that needs to be done and something we take a lot of pride in doing,” Brown said.

This lab in Rancho Mirage operates around the clock.

Director of laboratory at Eisenhower Health, Laura Mohlenhoff told us this lab work is relatively new to the hospital.

“It began on April 8, in house testing and we started sending out to the reference lab, I think it went live around March 15 or so,” she said.

Since then, over 1,400 patients have been tested at Eisenhower Health, 300 of those tests are analyzed in-house the others are sent to other labs.

“And it’s only if a result is urgently needed that it’s done here in the laboratory,” Mohlenhoff said.

In about an hour, the lab will know if the specimen is positive or negative for coronavirus. Every specimen has a barcode on it so that information can get where it needs to go very quickly. Turn around for results of specimens sent to outside labs can take between two to four days.

“This is a very difficult but exciting time here for laboratorians because of course right now most of our energy is focused on COVID testing as you can see behind me with Roy setting this test up here, but I don’t want to forget all the laboratorians that work day in and day out ... we’re just very proud of them,” she said.

This week is medical laboratory professionals week so we want to thank all of those lab workers on the front lines right now.