Shannon Cole has been a family nurse practitioner for 26 years, and before the coronavirus consumed the vast majority of American health care operations, she worked in a community medical clinic run by Jennie Stuart Health in Trenton.
Her work and her life changed drastically in mid-March. Now Cole spends three days a week in Hopkinsville with a team of healthcare workers who are testing people for COVID-19 through car windows at Jennie Stuart’s Express Lab.
Cole is witnessing history, and she is part of history.
It is a humbling experience to work with a team committed to tackling a huge challenge for their community, she says.
She has not heard any of her colleagues question whether they should be working in a place that potentially puts them within arm’s length of people who could have COVID-19.
In many ways, she said, their ethic reminds her of emergency room work.
“Everybody pitches in and does what’s needed,” she described in a phone interview.
Despite the known risks associated with the highly contagious virus that is linked to the deaths of at least 200 Kentuckians through Friday, April 24, the crew at the Express Lab continues to show up every weekday to screen and test people who might have COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Another person, who sometimes volunteers at Express Lab, has described the lab employees as “the frontline of the frontline” in Hopkinsville.
In fact, several positive tests have come from patients who used the drive-thru site since it opened March 20 on the Eagle Way bypass.
The lab has suspended other operations and now works exclusively on COVID-19 testing. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays. There are 18 to 20 lab employees working each shift. Patient specimens are sent to a lab in Missouri, which has typically provided results in 36 to 48 hours.
It was one of the first test sites to open in Kentucky.
Dr. Keith Toms, of Jennie Stuart, said the local hospital moved quickly to create a testing site because “we were afraid no one was owning it … the hospital feels like the community is our responsibility.”
A second drive-thru test site, run by the Christian County Health Department, is now running at Tie Breaker Park. Six health department employees work at the site from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday. Several local agencies, including Hopkinsville Park and Recreations, provide support for the operation.
The health department can test up to 70 people a day. Priority is given to first-responders, healthcare workers and anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Gravity Diagnostics, a Northern Kentucky lab, tests the specimens.
At Express Lab, the daily routine begins with the same steps. They arrive at 7:30 a.m. and prepare for the day.
Employees have their temperature taken. Those working outside with patients gather in a room to put on personal protective equipment — a gown, gloves, an N95 face mask and plastic face shield.
“We are very fortunate that we have everything we need,” Cole said.
That fact hit home for her several weeks ago on a Sunday evening when she watched “60 Minutes” and saw nurses in New York covered in plastic trash bags because they didn’t have enough protective gear.
The patients who arrive at Express Lab have a range of emotions, said Cole. Some of them are seemingly nonchalant and say they’ve been advised to come through for a test, just to rule out the possibility they have been infected. Others are worried and frightened.
Many of the patients a struggling because of challenges at home and work. They might have children at home because schools and daycares are closed. They might not know how they are going to pay bills and buy food because they are out of work.
Cole has seen patients in tears. They are anxious.
Everyone is screened to determine if they have coronavirus symptoms. Some are given flu and strep tests to rule out those illnesses.
“It’s our job to give them factual information and reassure them,” Cole said.
When the lab receives a positive result back, the health department is called so employees there can begin the process of tracing the patient’s contacts to determine who might have been exposed to the coronavirus through that person.
At the end of every shift, Cole and her co-workers have their temperature taken again. After they’ve removed the protective gear, they begin another process to prevent spreading the virus to people in their homes.
For Cole, that means not stopping anywhere on the drive back to Trenton. When she arrives at her house, she’s thinking through the steps she’ll take to avoid exposing her husband and her son, a college student who is home because of the pandemic.
She always enters through the back door. She showers and puts her scrubs in the washing machine. She pays attention to everything she touches.
“I am very purposeful,” she said.
Cole keeps a journal of her experience. She wants to remember how she worked with a team of people who accepted a challenge when their community needed them.
“I’ve been humbled by these people,” she said.
(This story has been updated.)
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
