Bowen Center To Provide COVID Testing Sites In Kosciusko County
September 30, 2020 at 10:30 p.m.
Bowen Center To Provide COVID Testing Sites In Kosciusko County
By David [email protected]
Carlson was one of the four panelists at the biweekly coronavirus pandemic press conference at Warsaw City Hall.
“As some of you may know, Bowen Center recently opened a primary care clinic, a Bowen health clinic, there at the intersection of Providence and Dubois right across from Pill Box Pharmacy,” Carlson said.
When that clinic came to the attention of Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver, Weaver reached out to Carlson and asked if Bowen Center would consider – on behalf of the KCHD – putting together a testing site. Carlson said yes and met with Weaver, looked at the material, met with KCHD Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington and understood better what was expected from the state. Bowen Center put a work plan together, which was then submitted to Weaver who submitted it to the state. On Tuesday, Carlson said he learned the state approved it, and it was going on to the next phase of the state.
“We’ve already started to recruit staff to do the testing, work at the testing site. Having a construction trailer brought in, etc., starting work on the material for advertising. We have to wait until we get the training material from the state. They also supply laptop and printers for the labels of the sampling material, all the sampling material itself. So there’s still a number of stuff we have to get from the state before we can actually start doing the testing,” Carlson explained.
The testing site will be on Dubois Street in the parking lot of the new health clinic. There will be an entry ramp and exit from there so traffic will flow. It will be a drive-through site.
Testing will not be staffed Sunday or Monday, but will be available mid-morning to late morning Tuesday through Saturday and stay open Tuesday through Friday in the evening hours, he said.
“We will continue this through June. And if the state extends the request for a testing site beyond that, we will continue that,” Carlson said.
He and Weaver have discussed the possibility of a second testing site as Kosciusko County qualifies for two sites.
“What we discussed was a mobile solution to the second site because everybody doesn’t live in and near Warsaw,” Carlson said.
If the second site becomes feasible, he said it will be spend some days in Syracuse, North Webster, Silver Lake and other towns in the county. The scheduling would “make sense” for the locations.
Carlson selected Gamal Hernandez as the director, who is a bilingual and bicultural Hispanic. All the staff employed by the testing site who will do the testing and collection of information also will be bilingual and bicultural Hispanic. “Because as we know, the Latinx community are very much at risk and we want to make sure we go that extra step to reach out to them to make it a friendly and welcoming testing experience,” he said.
Hernandez has served on Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer’s task force for quite a while. When there was a one-day testing site at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Hernandez worked that site.
“So he’s, frankly, the only one of our non-medical staff who has ever done any COVID testing. He knows what the routine is like and how it’s done because he’s experienced it,” Carlson said.
To get the word out about the new testing site to everyone, Carlson said all signs, brochures and everything else will be in both English and Spanish.
Thallemer said the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition out of Elkhart County has been working very closely with them. “We’ve been meeting probably for three months with a group to just look at the cultural needs of all of our communities. We’ve been focused on the numbers and focused on getting the information out and I do believe the word will spread very quickly. Gamal is a marvelous choice to do this for that reason,” he said.
A state requirement for the testing site was that there be cultural sensitivity to the site, to the procedures and there be bilingual support. “So I don’t see a problem with the information getting out because of the organization we’ve got,” Thallemer said. “Gamal will do a great job for all of our communities, the different communities within our city and county. Very happy about that.”
He earlier reminded everyone that the county and city partnered together to provide $300,000 of CARES Act funding for testing to supplement testing where there was none previously.
“With this state clinic being operated through the county health department by the Bowen Center, this basically takes the state CARES Act funds and utilizes those. The same CARES Act funds, only state allocation for the testing, so the city and county requirement as this test site is established will not be necessary,” Thallemer said.
When the State Department of Health provided testing down at Central Park, he said that was all state CARES Act money and the city and county didn’t have to participate and support that.
“I think that was the end game from the State Department of Health is that they wanted a more durable site, permanent site that we could operate locally but they’re supporting,” Thallemer said.
According to the agreement, he said the state was providing about everything while the Bowen Center was providing the site and staff for the testing.
“That leads us to the state CARES Act testing, which we will phase out of as this clinic gets started. There will be more coming to that. So our primary testing site will be this site at the Bowen Center as it gets up and running. We will have no gaps in testing. County and city will still provide testing until this site gets moving. We’ll still have a little overlap, and then we’ll transition to full testing at this Bowen Center site. More information to come on that,” Thallemer said.
Until the Bowen Center testing is up and running, the free testing for city and county residents will continue at the Parkview and MedStat locations.
Remington said it was very encouraging to him personally to see Bowen Center “take the baton so strongly” and he appreciated Weaver reaching out to Carlson about the testing site.
“Thanks for being a very engaged community player at the Bowen Center. This has really impressed me and that work plan is very generous with the evening hours and Saturday commitment. That will serve our community well,” Remington told Carlson.
Carlson was one of the four panelists at the biweekly coronavirus pandemic press conference at Warsaw City Hall.
“As some of you may know, Bowen Center recently opened a primary care clinic, a Bowen health clinic, there at the intersection of Providence and Dubois right across from Pill Box Pharmacy,” Carlson said.
When that clinic came to the attention of Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver, Weaver reached out to Carlson and asked if Bowen Center would consider – on behalf of the KCHD – putting together a testing site. Carlson said yes and met with Weaver, looked at the material, met with KCHD Public Health Officer Dr. William Remington and understood better what was expected from the state. Bowen Center put a work plan together, which was then submitted to Weaver who submitted it to the state. On Tuesday, Carlson said he learned the state approved it, and it was going on to the next phase of the state.
“We’ve already started to recruit staff to do the testing, work at the testing site. Having a construction trailer brought in, etc., starting work on the material for advertising. We have to wait until we get the training material from the state. They also supply laptop and printers for the labels of the sampling material, all the sampling material itself. So there’s still a number of stuff we have to get from the state before we can actually start doing the testing,” Carlson explained.
The testing site will be on Dubois Street in the parking lot of the new health clinic. There will be an entry ramp and exit from there so traffic will flow. It will be a drive-through site.
Testing will not be staffed Sunday or Monday, but will be available mid-morning to late morning Tuesday through Saturday and stay open Tuesday through Friday in the evening hours, he said.
“We will continue this through June. And if the state extends the request for a testing site beyond that, we will continue that,” Carlson said.
He and Weaver have discussed the possibility of a second testing site as Kosciusko County qualifies for two sites.
“What we discussed was a mobile solution to the second site because everybody doesn’t live in and near Warsaw,” Carlson said.
If the second site becomes feasible, he said it will be spend some days in Syracuse, North Webster, Silver Lake and other towns in the county. The scheduling would “make sense” for the locations.
Carlson selected Gamal Hernandez as the director, who is a bilingual and bicultural Hispanic. All the staff employed by the testing site who will do the testing and collection of information also will be bilingual and bicultural Hispanic. “Because as we know, the Latinx community are very much at risk and we want to make sure we go that extra step to reach out to them to make it a friendly and welcoming testing experience,” he said.
Hernandez has served on Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer’s task force for quite a while. When there was a one-day testing site at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Hernandez worked that site.
“So he’s, frankly, the only one of our non-medical staff who has ever done any COVID testing. He knows what the routine is like and how it’s done because he’s experienced it,” Carlson said.
To get the word out about the new testing site to everyone, Carlson said all signs, brochures and everything else will be in both English and Spanish.
Thallemer said the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition out of Elkhart County has been working very closely with them. “We’ve been meeting probably for three months with a group to just look at the cultural needs of all of our communities. We’ve been focused on the numbers and focused on getting the information out and I do believe the word will spread very quickly. Gamal is a marvelous choice to do this for that reason,” he said.
A state requirement for the testing site was that there be cultural sensitivity to the site, to the procedures and there be bilingual support. “So I don’t see a problem with the information getting out because of the organization we’ve got,” Thallemer said. “Gamal will do a great job for all of our communities, the different communities within our city and county. Very happy about that.”
He earlier reminded everyone that the county and city partnered together to provide $300,000 of CARES Act funding for testing to supplement testing where there was none previously.
“With this state clinic being operated through the county health department by the Bowen Center, this basically takes the state CARES Act funds and utilizes those. The same CARES Act funds, only state allocation for the testing, so the city and county requirement as this test site is established will not be necessary,” Thallemer said.
When the State Department of Health provided testing down at Central Park, he said that was all state CARES Act money and the city and county didn’t have to participate and support that.
“I think that was the end game from the State Department of Health is that they wanted a more durable site, permanent site that we could operate locally but they’re supporting,” Thallemer said.
According to the agreement, he said the state was providing about everything while the Bowen Center was providing the site and staff for the testing.
“That leads us to the state CARES Act testing, which we will phase out of as this clinic gets started. There will be more coming to that. So our primary testing site will be this site at the Bowen Center as it gets up and running. We will have no gaps in testing. County and city will still provide testing until this site gets moving. We’ll still have a little overlap, and then we’ll transition to full testing at this Bowen Center site. More information to come on that,” Thallemer said.
Until the Bowen Center testing is up and running, the free testing for city and county residents will continue at the Parkview and MedStat locations.
Remington said it was very encouraging to him personally to see Bowen Center “take the baton so strongly” and he appreciated Weaver reaching out to Carlson about the testing site.
“Thanks for being a very engaged community player at the Bowen Center. This has really impressed me and that work plan is very generous with the evening hours and Saturday commitment. That will serve our community well,” Remington told Carlson.
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