Coronavirus response: Baystate Health gets clearance to use Holyoke lab for accelerated testing

Coronavirus

Mark A. Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health announced Monday that it has received federal approval to use its Holyoke laboratory for testing of the coronavirus, putting the health system a step closer to being able to produce same-day results for the disease.

Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health, announced the approval. He also said the turnaround time for test results at private laboratories has improved. Testing is currently being done at the Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp in Massachusetts.

The start date for the Holyoke lab test program is not yet known pending additional steps, a spokeswoman said.

Keroack also said Baystate Medical Center has set aside approximately 180 beds for coronavirus patients at its MassMutual wing at the Springfield hospital. The medical center has the ability to expand the number of beds as needed, he said.

“We continue to plan for a surge in cases,” Keroack said during a weekly update by local officials at City Hall. "We expect this to happen over the next couple of weeks.

Baystate has been using commercial laboratories to process tests confirming whether patients have COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The health system also intends to use its central laboratory on Whitney Avenue in Holyoke, Keroack said. The equipment and platform for testing was granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval on Friday.

Officials previously said that using Baystate’s own lab for testing could drop the turnaround time from several days to as little as four hours.

State and federal officials including U.S. Rep. Richard Neal are assisting the hospital to expand its access to needed supplies from manufacturers. Once that is accomplished, Baystate can plan drive-through centers across the service area for its patients, Keroack said.

Meanwhile, the entire MassMutual wing at Baystate Medical Center — 30 intensive care unit beds and about 150 standard beds — is now devoted to coronavirus patients, Keroack said.

“We are expecting that we could collect up to 110 to 120 ICU beds and over 300 beds, so really over half the hospital being dedicated to COVID-19, possibly more,” Keroack said.

Baystate Health’s community hospitals may provide another 200 beds including some ICU beds, Keroack said.

As of Monday, there were 50 confirmed cases of coronavirus at Baystate. The number was listed as 39 cases on Sunday: with 22 of those cases listed as in-patients and the rest at home.

The plans were announced as Baystate Health revealed that the number of people it has confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus has reached 50.

The results of hundreds of more tests are pending, Keroack said.

There could also be field hospitals established in the state, but Keroack said he believes fixed hospital locations are more efficient “given that we have hundreds and hundreds of beds that we can bring online in a hospital.”

Keroack said Baystate Health is also very grateful for donations that are coming in of cash, protective equipment and many kinds of materials. Information on donations is available at https://www.baystatehealth.org/

Baystate Health has also been working with some local manufacturers to increase supplies of critical materials such as masks and viral sampling swabs.


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