Heritage Health begins COVID testing

KELLOGG — On Wednesday afternoon, Heritage Health in Kellogg officially began testing locals for the COVID-19 virus.

After months of not having a true testing center for Shoshone County residents, Heritage Health announced on Monday that they would will fill that void. The Kellogg Clinic is the first in Heritage’s network that is offering the tests.

That choice was based on the fact that places like Kootenai County already had locations to get tested, while Shoshone County did not.

“This community doesn’t have any testing here,” said Lynn Haughn, Heritage Health clinic director. “I know that the word out there is that people were concerned that there was no testing in the Silver Valley. We thought, ‘let’s bring that to our community, serve our community because that’s what we’re here for.”

One of the major hurdles for any testing center during the pandemic has been access to test kits, but Heritage Health in Kellogg seems to have overcome this challenge by having 100 tests currently on-hand and has access to more if needed.

Individuals who have an order from their primary care provider (not just limited to Heritage Health providers) can be tested at their discretion.

Heritage stresses that patients should only seek an order for testing if they have any of the CDC-listed symptoms for COVID-19. Folks who aren’t showing symptoms, but believe that they have been exposed to the virus, should self-quarantine and contact their primary care provider.

Also unlike the early months of the pandemic, there is no age or at-risk discrimination in who has access to the tests, meaning anyone who has symptoms and an order from their primary care provider can be tested.

“We have ample supplies to test people who need to be tested,” said nurse manager Alli Shifflett.

Not to be confused with the nasal-pharangeal tests, which are the far more invasive form of the tests, Heritage Health is offering a version that is far less invasive and only requires administrators to swab one centimeter up both nostrils of a patient.

Unlike other services in the Silver Valley that have helped medical experts keep an eye on the pandemic, these newly-available tests check for the direct presence of the COVID-19 virus — not virus antibodies or RNA that would suggest the presence of the virus.

“Once we have the test completed we send them off to the lab for results,” Shifflett said. “Results take two to four days as quoted to us by the lab, but we ask for the grace of three to five.”

Any positive test results are immediately reported to Panhandle Health District, and then the process of contact tracing would begin.

The goal of the contact tracing guidelines, which are ever evolving throughout this situation, are to alert anyone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 10 minutes.

Adding this much-needed service during this time is a big deal for Heritage Health, who is proud to be working with other health care providers in the community that they all serve.

“We are excited that we are able to offer this to the community,” Haughn said. “People here have a hard time getting over to Coeur d’Alene, or they don’t want to go, or they don’t have transportation to get over there.”

Shifflett hopes that people will heed the warnings of medical experts and wear masks and maintain social distancing standards as the world looks to get a handle on this virus.

“We want to protect people where we can,” Shiflett said. “Why not protect yourself.”

Heritage Health has streamlined their testing with a drive-up testing site on the north side of their parking lot. Assuming all the proper prerequisites have been met, folks pull up, get swabbed and are then sent on their way.

Testing is scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Heritage Health is located at 740 McKinley Ave. in Kellogg. For more information, please contact your primary care physician or call Heritage Health at 208-783-1267.