The Mayo Clinic announced it will begin testing its own patients who meet the CDC criteria.
The testing began Tuesday in Jacksonville, and will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. It will only be available to Mayo Clinic patients who are screened by a Mayo Clinic provider. Mayo said that the screening will most likely occur over the phone.
After getting approval to come in for testing, patients must bring in their Mayo medical record number and a driver’s license.
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Patients who test positive for COVID-19 will get a call from the Mayo Clinic, while those who test negative will receive a message through the patient online services. Results will be available on the online patient portal.
Mayo will also begin processing tests at its Jacksonville location, taking its own tests and other tests from hospitals in the region and getting results back within 24 hours.
Using processors from Roche Diagnostics, Mayo will be able to process more than 1,000 tests per day with the goal to improve that number over time.
"With faster and increased capacity of testing performed in our laboratories, we hope to provide a valuable service to the community and those affected by this virus," said Mayo Clinic CEO Kent Thielen in a news release.
According to the news release, Mayo Clinic is also testing at its Rochester, Minnesota and Pheonix, Arizona campuses.
Sky Lebron can be reached at slebron@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @SkylerLebron.
