As a business owner, you’d do anything to keep your employees safe.
When Nancy Esson, owner of Right at Home Georgian Triangle, first heard about the Government of Ontario’s rapid testing pilot program for employers back in September, she signed up immediately.
She had good reason to. Her business employs a staff of 70 who work as PSWs, nurses and RPNs, and who range in age from 25 to 70. Right at Home provides relief staffing and one-on-one staff to retirement and long-term care homes; they also work in clients’ homes. They work in a variety of settings and institutions across a wide geographic area, including Stayner, Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Meaford, Owen Sound, Muskoka Lakes, Wasaga Beach and cottage country. Their senior clients are, of course, vulnerable.
As per the guidance of the Ministry of Health, and as a participant of the PanBio Antigen Rapid Testing pilot program which started in November, Right at Home has only been permitted to provide rapid testing for their own employees.
Now things have changed. Recently, Right at Home Georgian Triangle was able to procure tests and are offering testing to family members and friends of their caregivers as well as others in the community.
Anyone who would like a rapid test can contact Right at Home at 705-293-5500 to book an appointment as a fee based service.
Tests results are available in 15 minutes and will be offered for $50 per test.
Rapid Tests are not a replacement for PCR tests, they are simply a screening device. If a person who has a Rapid Test has a positive result for Covid, they must book a PCR test through their local public health branch.
“The rapid test role is to act as a pre-screen; that is what it was intended to do. If you get a positive result, you still need to go and get a PCR test,” Esson explains.
“Rapid tests help people feel a little less anxious, people who couldn’t sleep because they were worried that they, one of their family members or someone in their workplace may have come into contact with someone who had Covid. “
Right at Home is happy to have secured the tests from an outside source so that they can offer them to community members.
Looking back, their participation in the program has been especially fortunate. “It was a really quiet announcement, because most businesses didn’t know about it,” says Esson. She received a notice via email from Home Care Ontario that the pilot program was being rolled out. She signed up right away on behalf of her company but found out afterwards that few or no organizations in the area had been informed of it. The media didn’t seem to know much about it—it certainly wasn’t in the newspaper—nor had the public been made aware.
The tests take only 15 minutes. They look like a pregnancy test and function similarly: there’s one line if you’re negative and two if, you’re positive.
As a participant of the Ministry of Health “Employer Antigen Screening Program” the Rapid Tests were provided for free by the Ministry of Health to employers. Right at Home did not charge their staff for the cost of the nurse or the test administrator.
Interestingly, staff reaction to the rapid testing has been mixed. Reception has generally been more positive than negative, and Esson estimates just about half have taken part. Tests are offered once a week, but staff do the testing on their own schedule; nothing is mandated. What’s important is that they know the option is available. Those who have chosen not to take advantage of the free tests have their own reasons and are never judged. Participation has always been voluntary.
Right at Home is happy to use the experience that they gained as a participant in the pilot program, which has ended to expand to offer the general public access to testing.
Says Esson, “Rapid testing should be at the door of everybody who wants to have it.”
For more information, visit Right at Home Georgian Triangle or call 705-293-5500.