Eric Morse, CEO of the Centers for Families and Children and Circle Health Services, says the goal of that collaboration is to eventually do upward of 300 to 400 free tests per day at various qualified centers. The centers are working together to ramp up access to testing, with some offering free walk-up and drive-up testing hours each week. Another source of Cleveland testing sites is through federally qualified health centers, which operate in under-served neighborhoods. ![]() The county isn’t alone in trying to make tests available to people who live in high-risk neighborhoods. That’s why partnering with “trusted community organizations” to locate testing sites at places like the Word Church is key, Gullett says, because they can help get the word out about testing.Ī local collective of churches called the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) has partnered with CCBH on its Color of Health initiative, in which the GCC’s 17 member churches will serve as testing sites and use their platforms to disseminate information. “That’s in addition to looking at other factors, such as certain social determinants of health, if a community has a high infant mortality rate, for example,” Shaw explains. ![]() Those locations include homeless shelters, nursing homes and other congregant living facilities. ![]() Nichelle Shaw, a supervisor in prevention and wellness with CCBH, explained that her organization tries to look at where cases are spiking in Cuyahoga County when they set up a new testing site. Setting up a testing site accessible to Black Ohioans is critical in a state where 27% of all COVID-19 cases are in African Americans-despite making up about 13% of the total population, according to Ohio Department of Health data. This is just a snapshot of the work that the CCBH and MetroHealth have been doing since mid-May when they started an initiative to launch testing sites in key neighborhood locations throughout the region.Ĭommunity health centers like Care Alliance in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood have also started sites where anyone can drop in to get tested.īetween mid-May and the end of June, CCBH and MetroHealth tested more than 3,500 people at sites like the Word Church through a county-funded partnership.Īccording to a CCBH spokesperson, 39% of the clients, like the bike rider, identify as Black or African American. “He had a cough and just said, ‘I really want to be tested.’”Īfter a quick screening using the standard nasal swabs, the man was back on his way to work within five minutes. Heidi Gullett, center, Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s medical director, explains the process to a driver who came through a pop-up COVID-19 testing site located at the Word Church on Kinsman Road in Cleveland back in early June.“He was on his way to work at a construction site,” Gullett says of the patient. CCBH and MetroHealth System worked with church officials to create a pop-up COVID-19 testing site in the church parking lot.ĭr. She watched a man ride his bike into the lot, up to one of three lanes set up for cars to drive through. Heidi Gullett, medical director at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH), stood with a host of other public health workers in protective gear in the parking lot of the Word Church at 5900 Kinsman Road. Some of these health centers, like Care Alliance, do have free drop-in testing hours where you don’t need an appointment. You go to a testing site at the health center and get tested. They will set-up an appointment with a doctor to screen you, and, according to Eric Morse, CEO of Circle Health, will likely greenlight you to get tested regardless of your symptoms. Warning: While the test may be free, the doctor’s appointment might be billed to your insurance.Ĭall your nearest community health center and say you’d like to get tested. You go to a testing site location and get tested. ![]() They question you, then greenlight you for testing (or not). Typically, you call and set up a time to talk to a doctor through a virtual meeting or a phone call. MetroHealth System has a hotline at (440) 92- 6843. Do you think you need to get tested for COVID-19?Ĭheck their websites- they often have a hotline to call to explain their processes.
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