Every day, thousands of people in the Philadelphia region schedule appointments for COVID-19 tests — from community members who feel achy and congested to patients who require tests ahead of surgery. For people tested at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center or one of its four bustling associated testing locations, results are processed within 24 hours. But what happens between the moment the swab exits your nostril and the moment you hear the word “positive” or “negative”? It’s during those hours that Michael Atweh, MS, MBA, MHA, senior director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and his tireless team of techs shine.
Q: Penn Medicine processes thousands of samples daily. What’s your team’s role in that effort?
A: Lab testing is what we do every day, but COVID redefined and expanded our horizons. Presby has four sites (the hospital, 3737 Market Street, Cherry Hill, and Woodbury Heights) dedicated to testing patients ahead of their scheduled surgeries and procedures. We were also assigned oversight of a community testing site in West Philadelphia. Drive-through and tent locations tend to be weather-dependent, though, so we moved into 4040 Market Street at the beginning of November. Approximately 100 community members and 40 employees are tested there per day.
We’re extremely busy, but it’s worth the long hours, many phone calls, and seven days of work. Standing up the pre-procedural testing sites in April meant we could bring patients back for elective surgeries and procedures. Providing rapid testing for symptomatic and asymptomatic employees gives them peace of mind and protects them, their colleagues, and their patients. And having a permanent community testing site breaks down barriers so anyone can get tested.
Q: The pandemic has been marked by constant change. What challenges have you had to navigate?
A: Our lab has surpassed pre-COVID volume [of all other types of tests], plus we’re managing COVID [testing] volume. We’ve had to learn a lot very quickly over the last 10 months — how to swab patients, how to process samples with different technologies, how to turn around results so we’re not keeping patients waiting or employees out of work…. Testing supplies are also in huge demand, so in order to have adequate inventory, we had to lean on multiple vendors and set up four different testing platforms.
But I have a fantastic, hardworking team. Our staff jumped in right away to learn about these platforms while also shouldering their normal responsibilities, and we built remote teams with new employees at all of our testing sites after [temporarily reassigned] staff returned to their own departments. Even though there’s this additional puzzle to work on that no one ever expected, I’m not working on it alone.
Q: With so many samples to process all day, every day, I imagine it can get overwhelming. What keeps you motivated?
A: Early on in the pandemic, I had a conversation with a nurse manager who said, “We’re figuring things out, but I can’t wait for all of my nurses to be back.” I found out that there was a sizeable amount of employees who couldn’t return to work because they’d been exposed, and it was starting to pose a bit of a crisis. The problem wasn’t that staff were quarantining — that was important to keep their patients, colleagues, and families safe. However, because they’d been tested outside of the health system, it took days for results to come back. That was when my team and I really made a commitment to rapid testing employees and getting them their results in about six hours. Things like that have really made a difference, and it feels good to participate in that process.
We’ve been living in a COVID world for 10 months, but I’m optimistic about the new year. As we continue rolling out the vaccine, I believe that even if we’re not COVID-free, we could be COVID-managed. Soon, this monster will be behind us.