RVH now conducting in-house COVID-19 testing

Test results can be expected in hours, not days

Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie is now conducting COVID-19 testing internally, one of only about a dozen Ontario hospitals to be approved by the Ministry of Health to do so.

While the province’s testing capacity has greatly improved, it still takes about two days to get results back. In-house testing means results come back within an hour, ensuring swift and appropriate medical care. The hospital currently has one specialized piece of lab equipment to conduct the test and has ordered a second in anticipation of another wave of the virus.

“Using existing equipment, RVH can analyze four samples at once and get results within an hour,” says Dr. Russell Price, Medical Director, Department of Laboratory Medicine. “RVH will continue to use the Public Health Laboratory and Shared Hospitals Laboratory for most of the daily testing, but some priority inpatient and healthcare worker samples can now be quickly processed in-house.”

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