WMMC Now Offering COVID-19 Antibody Testing

This article is courtesy of Ellie Schmutz, Marketing Manager for Western Missouri Medical Center.

Western Missouri Medical Center (WMMC) will begin offering COVID-19 antibody testing for the public on May 4, 2020.

Antibodies are produced in response to a foreign virus, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The presence of COVID-19 antibodies shows that the patient has been previously infected and is at a reduced risk of contracting COVID-19 a second time.

COVID-19 antibody testing does not require that a patient is symptomatic and is covered by all insurances. If you do not have insurance, testing is covered by government funding for COVID-19.

Patients are eligible for antibody testing at WMMC if they are:

An established patient of a WMMC provider
A resident of Johnson County, Missouri
WMMC employees and family
Whiteman Air Force Base residents
University of Central Missouri faculty and students.

If you are interested in COVID-19 antibody testing:

Contact your WMMC primary care provider for an appointment. An order from your primary care provider is required to be tested.

Your primary care provider will provide a screening to ensure you are not showing COVID-19 symptoms and have been symptom free for 14 days.
Once you have been cleared for testing, you will be provided information on where to receive testing depending on the healthcare provider either in clinic or at the Testing and Evaluation Site.
Once the antibody test is complete results will be available within 24 hours. Only patients that have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies will be contacted with their test results. Negative test results will not be contacted. All test results, negative and positive, will be available through our online portal. You can register for WMMC’s Patient Portal at com.

If you do not have a primary care provider and would like to receive antibody testing, please call WMMC’s Temporary COVID-19 Hotline at (660) 262-7580.

Western Missouri Medical Center (WMMC) is committed to patient safety and providing quality medical care. As Missouri begins to reopen under Governor Parson’s “Show Me Strong Recovery” plan, we are prepared to reopen outpatient surgeries and resume some essential in-clinic visits starting on Monday, May 4, 2020. This unprecedented time has forced our organization to be agile and innovative in order to maintain our commitment to patients. In fact, we have been at the forefront of COVID-19 as we were the second hospital in Missouri to open a COVID-19 testing and evaluation site and took immediate actions to reduce the spread of the virus.

We thank you for your commitment to the health of our county by staying home to reduce the spread. Your efforts have flattened the curve and slowed the spread of COVID-19 allowing our health system to care for patients without straining our resources. With that said, we recognize that our lives must continue and many patients have postponed their care.

As we “reopen” our hospital, we will do so in a phased approach:

Elective Outpatient Surgeries: Starting Monday, May 4.
Elective Inpatient Surgeries: Starting Monday, May 18 (contingent on COVID-19 cases in our county and the ability to meet Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines).
Elective Screenings, such as Colonoscopies and Mammograms: Starting May 18.
Clinic Visits: Clinics will expand in-person office visits as needed.
Virtual Visits: Virtual visits will continue to be available and are the preferred method of care.
Expanding COVID-19 Testing: Starting Monday, May 4 we will allow patients who are showing no symptoms to be tested at our Evaluation and Testing Site.
CoV-2 IgG Antibody Testing: Available to our community starting Monday, May 4. To obtain an order for the testing, you must be seen by your primary care provider. Your provider will do a screening to ensure you are not showing COVID-19 symptoms and have been symptom free for 14 days. If you do not have a primary care provider and would like to receive antibody testing, please call WMMC’s Temporary COVID-19 Hotline at (660) 262-7580. Additional details will be announced this week at com.

Receiving Safe Care:

Your safety is our top priority. We take our processes very seriously, so that you can be safe when receiving care.

Here’s just a few of the initiatives we have launched at WMMC to ensure your safety:

Co-horting patients and staff by separating potential and confirmed COVID patients from the normal population while also separating the staff that care for those patients
Screening stations for anyone entering our health system
Extensive personal protection guidelines requiring anyone in our facility to wear a mask
Limited entrance and no waiting rooms
Maintain a limited visitor policy
Maintain social distancing when not necessary for patient care
Screening surgery patients for COVID-19 and requiring testing prior to being cleared for elective surgery

I am proud of WMMC’s proactive stance with these initiatives. As a result, our employee percentage of positive cases is significantly lower than county and state percentages, and we have not had any patient to staff or staff to patient transmissions. WMMC will continue to follow guidelines set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the American Board of Surgery to implement extensive protocols while returning to surgery.

While some restrictions are lifted, we will continue to monitor cases before we can fully reopen all services. As a reminder, you are our greatest resource at combating COVID-19.

It is still crucial that you continue to practice the protocols set in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19.