health Rapid Testing of COVID-19 in Bay County by: Ashley Kelley, Pancare FL
T
he COVID-19 pandemic brought about an immediate need for a nationwide response strategy, “When we as a nation first learned of the COVID-19 health crisis, we
knew this had the potential of radically expanding throughout the United States. We at PanCare immediately took action to increase our personal protective equipment inventory to keep our staff safe and began putting a plan together to obtain and administer testing within our communities. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, it is our responsibility to aid our communities during a public health crisis, and we rose to the challenge,” stated Mike Hill, PanCare’s Founder, President and CEO. In response to the COVID-19 pan-
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provided Antigen, Antibody, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing to thousands, and will continue to provide testing as long as it’s needed. Prior to school closures due to COVID-19, PanCare provided high-quality healthcare for students on school campuses throughout the school year and will continue to do so once schools are back in session. This school-based health services program is designed to appraise, protect, and promote the health of students as well as provide preventive and emergency school-based health services in accordance with the local School Health Services Plan. PanCare currently employs health technicians in 29 Bay
demic, PanCare utilized their mobile healthcare units to support
District School and provides health screenings, school and sports
community drive-thru testing sites. The first testing site was
physicals, and dental services on campus. PanCare also continues
opened on March 23, 2020, and they have since expanded to open
to expand its TeleHealth program by providing access to primary
five additional stationary community testing sites as well as estab-
medical care, behavioral health, opioid counseling, and education
lish mobile COVID-19 response teams to set up at businesses and
for children and youth in underserved service areas. PanCare
large neighborhoods to provide testing on-site. PanCare has since
currently operates 33 TeleHealth clinics on school campuses with
BAY B I Z / S U M M E R 2020
