Genesis Healthcare Announces It Completes Millionth Point-Of-Care Covid-19 Test
April 20, 2021 at 04:30 pm EDT
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Genesis HealthCare, announced that it completed its millionth point-of-care (POC) COVID-19 test on April 19, 2021. The million lab tests were conducted across more than 300 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities across the country. In July 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announced it would send POC testing devices to every nursing home in the country. These POC tests are antigen tests that are different from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, although both tests look for the virus. The important advantage of POC tests is that they provide results within an hour of sampling, compared to PCR tests that require samples to be sent out to a lab with turnaround times of 48 hours or more. In total, Genesis created more than 300 clinically approved center laboratories across 22 states to conduct real-time COVID-19 tests. Traditionally, skilled nursing facilities would not have onsite labs. The Company used Becton Dickinson Veritor Plus, Quidel Sofia 2, Abbott BinaxNOW and Access Bio, Inc. devices and spent millions of dollars to purchase the test kits. Each facility also added or designated nurses for specimen collection, nurses trained to run the tests and staff to document and report results for regulatory compliance.
Genesis Healthcare, Inc. is a holding company. The Company provides services to skilled nursing facilities and assisted/senior living communities. It also specializes in contract rehabilitation therapy, respiratory therapy, physician services, staffing services, and accountable care. It provides approximately 250 skilled nursing centers and senior living communities in 22 states nationwide. Its subsidiaries also supply rehabilitation therapy to approximately 1,400 locations in 43 states and the District of Columbia. It offers a range of services, which include rehabilitation therapy, memory support, long-term care, and assisted/senior living. Its rehabilitation therapy includes transitional care, short stay care, ventilator rehabilitation, dialysis, cardiac management, and pulmonary management. Its long-term care service provides 24-hour skilled nursing services for elderly residents and people with a chronic condition or a prolonged illness. It also offers hospice care services.