Morris County's First Coronavirus Drive-Through Test Site Opens

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, NJ - Atlantic Health, which owns Morristown Medical Center, Hackettstown Medical Center, Newton Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center and Chilton Medical Center, has expanded their novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, response efforts by opening a drive-through testing site on Wednesday.

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"As part of Atlantic Health System’s effort to assure safe, organized, and adequate COVID-19 outpatient testing in the communities it serves, the system launched phase one of a drive-through testing site," Atlantic Health spokesperson Karen O. Zatorski said.

Zatorski noted that, for now, the site was by appointment only.

"The testing site opened yesterday with 33 appointments, and there are 80 appointment slots scheduled for Thursday to increase the number of patients served," she said. "Experience gained throughout this initial phase of testing will create a blueprint Atlantic Health will use to broaden this service."

Atlantic Health is looking to expand access to outpatient testing with all possible speed and began this effort with the opening of a testing location on the property of its corporate headquarters. The testing site is only accepting patients who meet the NJDOH criteria for COVID testing through appointments made by Atlantic Medical Group physicians.

This is not the only action Atlantic Health Systems has made to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic. Atlantic Health System is acting proactively to better facilitate care to all of patients, erecting temporary structures at some of their locations to triage patients:

• Morristown Medical Center in partnership with the Morris County Office of Emergency Management and the Morris County Office of Health Management, has built a self-contained, patient triage and assessment system located adjacent to the emergency department on its Madison Avenue campus. The structure has dedicated space for patient evaluations and treatment by qualified medical professionals.
• Hackettstown and Newton Medical Centers have stationed self-contained, patient triage and assessment systems adjacent to the emergency departments – Medical Office Building One at 657 Willow Grove Street in Hackettstown and an Advanced Screening Triage trailer at 175 High Street in Newton. Both structures have dedicated space for patient evaluations and treatment by qualified medical professionals.
• Overlook Medical Center recently stationed a temporary triage structure outside of its emergency department at the Overlook Medical Center Union Campus, to help more efficiently assess patients with concerns for COVID-19 while patients with other medical needs to be seen expeditiously. The 8-by-40-foot open container office, similar in structure to a shipping container, was stationed at the Union Campus on Wednesday and is operational. An additional, 20-by-40-foot tent-like structure will be erected at Overlook Medical Center's main campus, in Summit.
• Chilton Medical Center is preparing to erect a 35-by-19-foot tent structure outside its emergency department for similar purposes later this week.

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