The Yates Community Endowment’s Yates Emergency Relief Fund awarded $5,000 to Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital and the Homestead to purchase reagents to complete onsite, rapid COVID testing at the facilities.
Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital and The Homestead have strictly adhered to all COVID-19 mandates for testing, screening, PPE, infection prevention and vaccination to safeguard patients and residents. These protocols present significant operational and financial burdens, particularly for The Homestead, as long term care facilities have very robust testing requirements.
Best practices are for onsite, rapid testing which is more cost effective than sending samples to outside labs and which enhances care and safety. Also, as COVID symptoms can be very similar to those of FLU and RSV, it is important to be able to test for all with a single sample and to get quick results to ensure proper treatment and control potential out-break. This process requires a large supply of reagents, which are expensive.
“We are so grateful for the support of The Yates Emergency Relief Fund,” says Helen Kelley, Director of Development for the Finger Lakes Health Foundation. She adds, “Our goal is to maximize our onsite testing/processing to keep the cost and turnaround time as low as possible, in order to provide proper treatment, client satisfaction and safety for our staff, patients and residents. This grant will go a long way to help address this urgent need, at a time when those we serve are relying on us the most.”
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