Bryan Health will hit the road with a COVID-19 testing RV

Bryan Health is working on getting a mobile COVID-19 testing unit up and running.

Bryan Health officials said they will be picking up the rented RV on Monday and converting the vehicle into a COVID-19 testing space. The new testing vehicle should be on the road later this week.

John Woodrich, President and CEO of Bryan Medical Center, said the RV will travel to different areas around Lincoln as well as other communities to support rural hospitals.

Woodrich said Bryan Health is looking at the patients who have been tested at the Bryan LifePointe Drive-Thru Clinic and where in Lincoln those patients are from.

Using that information, the hospital wants to determine if there are areas of Lincoln that are underserved because of transportation, access, or language barriers.

Woodrich said, if Bryan Health identifies a pocket within Lincoln that is underserved, the mobile testing unit would be sent to that area.

As of Monday, Bryan Health has completed 1,906 COVID-19 tests at the drive-thru clinic, Bryan Medical Center, and Urgent Care.

Of the tests performed, 98 were positive, 1,783 were negative, and 25 remain pending.

There are now nine patients at Bryan Medical Center with confirmed or pending COVID-19 test results.

Of those patients, five are confirmed-positive and four are awaiting their test results.

Woodrich said four COVID-19 patients remain on ventilators. All four of those patients are from outside of Lancaster County.

As of Monday, five COVID-19 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit at Bryan Medical Center.

Bryan Health Vice President of Advancement Bob Ravenscroft said there is good news coming out of COVID-19 treatment. Ravenscroft said patients continue to come off ventilators and be released from the hospital.

Woodrich said a team at Bryan Medical Center is looking to how the hospital would resume elective procedures and when that will happen.

The hospital is working alongside the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department on a plan of how to gradually reintroduce elective procedures and surgeries.

Woodrich said he does not see Bryan Health “flipping the switch” and resuming all surgeries and procedures at once.