Local health care providers offer antibody testing

RICHLAND, Wash.-- While the state works to expand testing for coronavirus, local health care providers are turning to antibody testing to help gather more data about the spread of the virus.

Dr. Douglas Crawford with Physicians Immediate Care in Richland said he spent about three weeks searching for a reliable antibody test.

"I was able to get an agreement with the University of Washington. Their virology department had been working on a test that actually is one of the better tests in the country right now," Dr. Crawford said.

He initially tested the employees at the clinic, who had been administering COVID-19 tests for two months.

"We've been averaging about one in three tests that we've been doing have tested positive for COVID," said Dr. Crawford. "And then we work with the health department notifying them so that they can do contact tracing."

Dr. Crawford was curious to learn whether any of his staff had been exposed to the virus due to their exposure to patients who ultimately tested positive for the virus, and between the two facilities, just two workers tested positive for the IGG antibodies that indicates whether someone has been infected with COVID-19 and recovered.

"That made me happy, because all the employees that worked at the walk-in clinic were negative, which tells me that in all the testing they had been doing over the prior two months they were making good use of their PPE, so none of them got infected," Dr. Crawford said.

Once employees had been tested, the clinic coordinated with several first responder agencies, offering to test firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, and now he's opening the testing up to the public.

He says for now, the test doesn't cost anything out-of-pocket for anyone with insurance-- all insurance companies are covering 100% of the cost for the antibody testing.

For those without insurance, the state of Washington is picking up the tab between now and June 1st.