Starting Monday, March 16, Fraser Health will be opening a centralized community COVID-19 testing site at the Chilliwack Health Unit to divert patients from Chilliwack General Hospital’s emergency department who arrive there for COVID-19 testing and do not need emergency care. (Jenna Hauck/ Progress file)

Starting Monday, March 16, Fraser Health will be opening a centralized community COVID-19 testing site at the Chilliwack Health Unit to divert patients from Chilliwack General Hospital’s emergency department who arrive there for COVID-19 testing and do not need emergency care. (Jenna Hauck/ Progress file)

COVID-19 testing site to open at Chilliwack Health Unit starting Monday

It is being opened to divert patients from Chilliwack General Hospital's emergency department

Fraser Health has opened a centralized community COVID-19 testing site Monday but it’s not open to the public for self-referred testing.

The site is only for those referred by their doctors or from the ER for testing, who do not need emergency care.

It is geared to “to support community physicians who have assessed their patient as needing testing but are unable to perform the testing in their clinic,” according to a notice from Fraser Heath on March 13, 2020.

Patients coming into the ER at CGH will go to a pre-triage station at the emergency entrance where they will be assessed using the strict screening criteria. Only those who meet the criteria for COVID-19 testing will be diverted to the centralized community testing site.

Chilliwack physicians who are not able to perform the test in their clinic can also refer their patients to the site once they have completed the screening process using the pre-screening questionnaire and the patient meets the criteria for COVID-19 and does not require acute care/treatment/assessment.

READ MORE: Do you think you have COVID-19? Here is what to do next

RELATED: B.C. warns of phone scam offering to sell fake COVID-19 testing


 

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Chilliwack Progress