PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fuentes, Lucas
AU  - Shah, Nigam
AU  - Kelly, Sara
AU  - Harnett, Glenn
AU  - Schulman, Kevin A.
TI  - Exploring Workplace Testing with Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction SARS-CoV-2 Testing
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2022.01.210284
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - 96--101
VI  - 35
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/35/1/96.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/35/1/96.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2022 Jan 01; 35
AB  - Background: Molecular tests (ie, real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]) and antigen tests are used to detect SARS-CoV-2. RT-PCR tests are generally considered to be the standard for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 due to accuracy and reliability but can take longer to return results than antigen tests. Our aim was to examine if point-of-care (POC) testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection would provide a flexible resource to help achieve workplace safety. We compared test results and time-to-test results between a POC RT-PCR test and a send-out PCR test in a program implemented in summer 2020.Results: POC testing shortened the time to results to 110 minutes in the POC setting from the 754 minutes for send-out tests. The specificity of POC RT-PCR single POC testing was 98.7% compared with send-out RT-PCR testing and was confirmed at 99.8% in a validation analysis. The sensitivity of the POC testing was 100% compared with send-out RT-PCR, although in a validation analysis, sensitivity appeared as 0% because only the 12 positive or indeterminate samples on the first analysis were retested and the majority were false-positives that were correctly ruled out.Conclusions: POC testing for SARS-CoV-2 with RT-PCR technology is possible at reduced time compared with send-out PCR testing.