Bryan Health Believes In-House COVID-19 Testing Days Away

Bryan Health could be just days away from conducting COVID-19 tests itself, Bryan Medical Center CEO John Woodrich said Friday.

KFOR News media 10/11 Now reports on Thursday, the hospital said Bryan Health had the capability to perform COVID-19 tests, but since Nebraska was not considered a hot spot for the virus, supplies weren’t being made available to conduct the tests in house.

“We’re working with getting the reagents to then actually run the test here,” Woodrich said. “We are working with the health department on that and believe that we’re probably within days of being able to perform the actual analysis of the samples.”

As it stands, Bryan Health relies on a third-party lab to review samples taken from the drive-thru clinic, while a state lab handles tests conducted at Bryan Health.

Currently, Bryan Health has administered 684 COVID-19 through the drive-thru clinic, in-patient and urgent care.

Of those tests, nine were positive and 299 negative.

After nine days of the drive-thru clinic, four of 466 tests conducted were positive. One hundred and sixty-two were found to be negative.

Bryan Health said another 149 people were tested at its hospitals and three were deemed positive. A dedicated area of Bryan Urgent Care has been reserved for people displaying respiratory issues. Through that, 69 people have been tested for COVID-19. Two were found to be positive.

The results of a majority of tests conducted, about 376 total, are still pending.