Syracuse Community Health Center to handle area coronavirus testing, beginning Monday

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County announced that the Syracuse Community Health Center (SCHC) at 819 S. Salina St. will serve as a local site where people can get tested for the coronavirus (COVID-19), beginning Monday.

In making the announcement Friday afternoon, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon thanked Chicago, Illinois–based Hill-Rom and the Allyn Foundation for “generously” donating the necessary equipment so the site will be ready for operations Monday morning. Hill-Rom is the parent company of medical-device maker Welch Allyn in Skaneateles Falls.

“The Syracuse Community Health Center, [emergency rescue service] AMR, and the City of Syracuse have been developing plans quickly to operationalize a site where people in our community who need testing can get it outside our emergency departments,” he said.

AMR, short for American Medical Response, is a Colorado–based ambulance service with Syracuse operations.

Here is how it will work. People who believe they are having coronavirus symptoms need to call their doctor, who will coordinate any necessary testing. For people who don’t have a primary-care physician, Upstate Medical University plans to open a dedicated phone line beginning Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m., which people can use to call for a medical screening. The number to call is 315-464-3979, Onondaga County announced Saturday.

Patients who are deemed to need possible testing will be directed to the SCHC, the Onondaga County executive said.

“I can’t stress enough that people should first call their physician or the phone bank [at Upstate] … for consultation before coming to the [SCHC] site. This is not a walk-up site situation,” said McMahon. “We will be able to accomplish testing in a manner that will alleviate pressure on our emergency rooms.”

“Initially, we will be using a team of professionals from the health center. However, as the week progresses, we will be pulling from the multiple partners who are in this coalition,” Derrick Murry, COO of Syracuse Community Health Center, said when asked about who will handle the testing procedure.

The partners involved include staff from Upstate University Hospital, or another Syracuse hospital, Murry noted.

McMahon acknowledged that hospitals and doctors locally have conducted tests for the virus.

The county sees the SCHC testing site as a way to avoid the problem of sick people showing up unannounced at a hospital emergency room, where they could expose health-care professionals or other patients to COVID-19 or other illnesses.

“We can’t have people just showing up at emergency rooms when you may be symptomatic to get tested,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon “It’s not good for our medical infrastructure to sustain itself over time.”

Onondaga County has been working to ensure “there is a process and there is testing done in a way that helps sustain the medical infrastructure” locally, he added.

He believes it’s important that local officials handle that work now during the planning and preparation phase before changing to a mitigation phase in dealing with cases.

As of late Friday afternoon, Onondaga County didn’t have any confirmed coronavirus cases, according to McMahon.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com