When ETSU Health turned its attention to setting up a drive-through testing site to
increase the availability of COVID-19 testing in the region in mid-March, Dr. Kevin Breuel and his laboratory team at ETSU Clinical Labs (ECL) played a pivotal role in making it happen.
By working with outside reference labs, they were able to ensure that ETSU Health would get enough test collection kits to provide this vital service to the community. They also worked closely with the COVID leadership team to monitor and decrease turnaround time for test results.
Read more about Breuel, who joined ETSU in 1991 and serves as Professor in the Department of OB/GYN; Administrative Director, East Tennessee Reproductive Endocrine Lab (ETREL); and Administrative and Medical Director, STAT Laboratory and Medical Education Assistance Corporation Physician Office Laboratories.
Describe what you do at ETSU Health.
I oversee and guide a wonderful team of laboratory personnel who are responsible for processing physicians’ lab orders, collecting patient samples, and performing diagnostic testing and providing those results to the health care provider so they can be used in the care of patients.
We have five people in our reference lab (ETREL) and seven people in our STAT Lab and phlebotomy outreach collection site/labs.
My job is never the same from day to day, hour to hour or minute to minute. That’s why I can honestly say over the last 28-plus years, I have enjoyed coming to work each day with the goal of working to see what we can do today that will improve the service that we provide to our clinical health care partners and the care that we provide to our patients.
How has your job changed since the COVID-19 pandemic?
In reality, my job has largely been the same, only the focus on COVID-19 patients and laboratory testing for those patients became a priority.
First, we assisted with the collection, processing and testing of symptomatic patients in our community. In the beginning, this was difficult due to the shortage of collection supplies and test kits.
Next, we worked to identify testing labs that could provide molecular testing for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and provide this testing with a short turnaround time. We also work daily to try and obtain molecular SARS-CoV-2 testing kits for either of our two in-house molecular testing platforms. Completion of this goal will provide us another opportunity to provide better service to our physicians and care to our patients.
Simultaneously, we began the process of identifying and validating SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests so we could prepare for the next phase of testing, which is upon us now. This week, we will roll out rapid antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The opportunity to work each day to improve the system and not having to accept status quo.