Oregon’s recent spike in coronavirus cases has created a need for health care providers across the state to open their doors for testing. For many health workers, this means long hours and high contact rates with the public.
Marc Schnapper, medical director for Nova Urgent Care, which has seven test-capable sites in the Willamette Valley, said his facilities are hugely impacted by the large wave of COVID cases.
“We’re a rather large resource for urgent care in our community and for primary care, but we’re certainly not the only people doing testing,” said Schnapper. “So it’s quite a big increase from what we’ve seen over the last couple months. For the month of June, in total, we did almost a thousand tests.”
Schnapper said appointments for in-patients have taken nearly twice as long as they did before the pandemic as a result of heightened safety protocols. However, he hopes NOVA will sustain its high volume of patients with a careful rotation of health workers at varying clinics.