October 30, 2020

COVID-19 Test Result Turnaround Time for Residents and Staff in US Nursing Homes

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

Keywords (Tags): health care setting

• A study of SARS-CoV-2 antigen test turnaround times among Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) found that although testing delays improved over time in the study period, few SNF across the US received test results in less than 24 hours. In early September, test turnaround time was less than 1 day for 6% of SNFs testing staff and 5% for testing residents. By late September, the proportions rose to 14% and 10%, respectively. In hotspot counties where facilities should have received point-of-care testing instruments from Medicare by mid-August, less than 17% of SNFs had a turnaround of less than 24 hours. The authors note that the state of testing at the end of the study was behind what epidemiological modeling suggests is key to preventing outbreaks.

McGarry et al. (2020). COVID-19 Test Result Turnaround Time for Residents and Staff in US Nursing Homes. JAMA Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7330