PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE
health departments and tribal partners,
and assisting with responses to general
lab and biosafety related questions.
A challenge Oregon has faced is the
frequent turnover of personnel in various
IMT roles, as well as the onboarding
of new personnel assisting with the
response who may lack a laboratory
background or experience. Since much of
the COVID-19 pandemic response revolves
around laboratory testing and experience
to provide informed decision making, it
is critical that laboratory operations and
biosafety-related terms and concepts
are understood. To address this specific
challenge, OSPHL and other Oregon IMT
personnel have been devoting time and
resources for training new personnel, and
has recently created a comprehensive
“COVID-19 Lab-Related Terminology”
guide intended to be shared with
response personnel and other partners to
assist with enhancing overall laboratory
related systems and fostering a shared
knowledge of laboratory and biosafety
related terminologies.
Minnesota Department of Health
Eric Lundquist, biosafety outreach
coordinator
In our specimen receiving area, there
would typically be two to four employees
working, focused on unpacking
specimens and isolates, ordering tests
and sending packages to the appropriate
laboratory. Prior to the pandemic, The
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
was able to handle around 250 specimens
per day. When COVID-19 hit, we received
upwards of 1,200 COVID-19 specimens
per day.
Due to the influx of specimens, we
struggled to be efficient in our specimen
receiving area, not having enough
resources such as computers, printers
and scanners to order tests quickly. There
was also the issue of social distancing in
a space that typically holds five people
maximum, when instead they would
have up to 10 people working at a time to
handle the surge.
To fix the issue of additional specimens
and limited resources in a crowded
space, we turned our training lab into
a COVID-19 specimen receiving area.
MDH ordered additional equipment
(computers, printers and scanners) and
arranged them into three stations. Each
station has one person entering primary
patient demographics and ordering the
tests, another person checks the order
and enters more detailed information,
another scans the order forms into the
computer and sends the specimens to
the lab for processing. Currently MDH has
6-12 employees ordering tests quickly and
safely in the converted space, while the
original specimen receiving area is used
for routine specimens. •
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Summer 2020 LAB MATTERS 29