The University of Oregon partnered with the McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield and lent medical equipment to help set up a lab for COVID-19 testing, according to a media statement from MWMC. In addition, UO donated thousands of PPE items to Lane County Public Health, LCPH spokesperson Jason Davis said.
The university provided MWMC with a testing machine, medical instruments and scientific equipment, the statement said, and researchers from the university’s Genomics and Cell Characterization Core Facility are helping MWMC set up the lab for “rapid and high-volume COVID-19 testing.”
MWMC began testing patients for COVID-19 onsite on April 20, according to Jana Waterman, the vice president of business development and marketing director for the facility.
Cassandra Moseley, senior associate vice president for research and innovation at the university, said UO recognized that there was a national testing shortfall and decided to help solve testing issues locally. Moseley, who coordinated the effort to develop the testing lab, said the university lent MWMC the testing machine through an equipment use agreement.
“If we can make sure that our medical providers are well-prepared, whether it’s through having good quality information about who’s sick and who’s not sick or having the supplies they need to care for patients, that’s going to serve us all, in the short term and in the long term,” she said.
Waterman said the resources from UO were integral to MWMC increasing its testing capacity. “Without the equipment we would not be able to proceed,” she said.
With the new testing lab, according to the statement, MWMC will be able to provide 200 tests per day. This development allows the facility to test for COVID-19 on site — thus, increasing the turnaround time — rather than outsourcing tests to another lab, Waterman said.
The university started planning the testing program in early March and ordered a testing instrument “that is now in short supply,” according to MWMC’s statement. UO also provided biosafety cabinets, microcentrifuges, pipetting machines and nasal swabs.
“The UO does not have medical research facilities, but we had a lot of faculty and students who are willing and able to contribute to the response effort,” Associate Vice President for Research Mike Pluth said in the statement. “Our world-class science researchers were quickly able to figure out the unique contribution in the molecular biology of virus testing that we can provide directly to Lane County.”
In the next week, Waterman hopes to receive another piece of testing equipment from the university that helps “automate the pipetting process,” which would shorten the testing period and expand MWMC’s testing to 300 per day.
MWMC “began conserving PPE at the onset of COVID-19 reaching Oregon,” Waterman said, and it has been able to maintain a stable supply.
UO also donated an upwards of $27,000 worth of PPE to LCPH, Davis said. LCPH collected the supplies at its centralized PPE donation center, he said, and is actively distributing them to medical facilities and first responders based on demand.
LCPH is asking medical facilities and first responders to email its logistics team 48 hours before they expect to experience a shortage, Davis said, to allow LCPH enough time to process and deliver the order before a shortage ensues. It has been receiving such requests every day, but its PPE donations are exceeding its burn rate on PPE use, he said.
LCPH is able to calculate its daily burn rate and determine how much PPE it will need for the duration of the pandemic, or “maybe even for a second wave,” Davis said.
Sufficient PPE was among the seven criteria Dr. Patrick Luedtke, the senior public health officer for Lane County, listed that should be reached before the county considers relaxing any restrictions. The other criteria, which Luedtke laid out during a LCPH press conference on April 13, included a decrease in infections or deaths over two 14-day incubation periods, local testing capacity, contact tracing resources and a general blueprint for the public.
“We have some work to do on some of those other seven points but, in terms of PPE, thanks to the University of Oregon donation and other donations, we really are in a nice solid spot and it’s one of the areas that we feel confident on,” Davis said.
“A complete list of all measures being taken” is available on UO’s coronavirus information page, according to the statement. “Questions, concerns or suggestions should continue to be directed to the web form or to the coronavirus information line at 541-346-7007. The line will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.”