Lab has cleared its COVID-19 test result backlog, SC health department says

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Thursday that Premier Medical Laboratory Services and DHEC’s other testing vendors are reporting all backlogs have been cleared. The labs said turnaround times for COVID-19 test results are back to the standard 48-hour time frame.

The company invested millions of dollars in additional equipment and hired more than 300 employees to solve the problem.

“Premier Medical Laboratory Services is now back to pre-surge turnaround times,” Murdock said. “We are processing 95% of our results in under 24 hours.”

DHEC COVID-19 Coordination Office Director Louis Eubank said the clearing of the testing backlogs was welcome news.

“We appreciate the patience of all South Carolinians and the hard work of our lab partners to respond to the challenges presented by the surge in testing demand,” Eubank said. “We thank all of our vendors for working diligently to provide timely test results and are optimistic that the adjustments made by all parties will ensure no such backlog occurs again.”

DHEC said anyone waiting more than 72 hours for a test result should call 1-888-697-9004 or email ACC-Testing-CustomerService@dhec.sc.gov to get the results. Please limit comments to one phone message or email; this helps avoid multiple requests for the same test. When leaving a message, please provide your name, date of birth, a good contact number, the test date and testing location and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Free at-home tests also are available from DHEC’s public health department testing sites (check DHEC’s testing locator page for local availability) and for free through the federal government here.

SC health leaders say lab failed to deliver timely COVID-19 test results

On Jan. 18, DHEC addressed a delay in COVID-19 test processing and result delivery.

In a statement, DHEC officials said they have had issues with multiple testing vendors and reporting facilities and continue to work on “failures to process tests and report results and case counts since the omicron-fueled surge began in late December.”

DEHC first mentioned the delays on Jan. 7 in a news release. It said said the delay was happening in part because of the surge in the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. Health officials said Premier Medical Laboratory Services, which is one of DHEC’s contracted testing providers, didn’t immediately notify DHEC that they were experiencing delays in providing test results.

“After DHEC learned this, the agency contacted Premier for more information and to work toward solutions for getting results relayed back to individuals as quickly as possible,” DHEC said. “Premier is actively working to make up for the delayed results, however we know that some individuals have still not received their test results.”

DHEC said about 97% of its COVID-19 tests are processed at third-party, private labs that are separate from DHEC. They said the state-run lab, with a capacity of 2,500 samples, is operating without issue at full capacity. However, large private labs like Premier have not been able to keep up and the state was still seeing issues on Jan. 18.

“[The labs] have fallen significantly behind due to issues ranging from the sheer volume of samples to COVID-related internal staffing shortages and still have not caught up or met contractually obligated deadlines to do so,” DHEC said Jan. 18.

Premier is the same Greenville, South Carolina lab company associated with the “glitch” StarMed Healthcare experienced in its Charlotte test results. The issue led to weeks-long delays of thousands of COVID-19 test results, according to a Jan. 10 letter from StarMed CEO Mike Estramonte.

Estramonte said Premier experienced an increase in testing needs from all its service locations, including from DHEC, and fell behind in providing test results due to “multiple unforeseen circumstances.”

“Unfortunately, this delay was not immediately communicated to StarMed,” he said in his letter.

On Jan. 19, StarMed announced the healthcare organization severed ties with Premier Labs. StarMed stopped using Premier for Mecklenburg County tests on Jan 11. StarMed then made the decision to no longer use Premier for tests from any county.

South Carolina health leaders also said some of the private testing vendors had fallen so far behind in reporting results that DHEC was forced to recommend that patients finish what would have been their quarantine window or return to work if it had been more than five days.

“As we stated, these delays are unacceptable, and we are taking every step to hold the responsible labs and vendors accountable and get results back in a timely fashion,” DHEC said in a statement to Channel 9. “We are considering multiple options to remedy this situation, but the primary focus is getting test results to South Carolinians as quickly as possible so we can all better protect ourselves against COVID-19.”

DHEC said it is still working on a solution to the issue.

“DHEC sincerely apologizes to all those negatively impacted by the substandard performance of select vendors and is working diligently to correct those issues. The safety and welfare of the citizens of South Carolina remain DHEC’s overriding concern.”

(WATCH: Community leaders get the word out about free COVID-19 at-home tests)

Community leaders get the word out about free COVID-19 at-home tests

©2022 Cox Media Group