Quality First Urgent Care recently opened a high complexity laboratory at its Burtonsville Town Square facility.
This addition is poised to be a game-changer for the medical care provider, which has already expanded to include four COVID testing sites, and through an ongoing partnership with Quest Diagnostics has become one of the largest testing facilities in the state of Maryland.
With the addition of the new lab, Quality First is taking yet another huge leap.
It’s all part of the vision of Dr. Pascal Crosley. As a board-certified emergency physician with extensive experience in the field, Crosley and Quality First were able to pivot quickly when the pandemic hit, and as such were one of the first clinics to provide testing when it was in dire need.
“We developed drive-through testing behind my urgent care, which was very successful,” Crosley says. “From there, we developed tests that were sent to a lab, then added rapid antigen testing. Now, we have basically developed what is known as a high complexity laboratory. The hope is that, soon, we will be able to do our own RT-PCR testing right here at the urgent care. That’s a pretty distinguished designation to have.”
Quality First Urgent Care has grown over the last year to include four COVID testing sites. Drive-through testing remains available at its Savage and Elkridge fire station sites, while walk-up testing is available at Burtonsville and its newest facility in Clarksville.
“I live in the Clarksville area,” Crosley says. “There seemed to be a need to fill a space there, and I was happy to open it and provide for my local community.”
The development of the high-complexity laboratory couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, as workforces return to the office and students return to schools. Herd immunity has yet to be achieved, Crosley says, and continued community spread will call for ubiquitous testing so that people with COVID can detect it early, quarantine, and mitigate the spread. The new laboratory will allow for increased testing volume and will ultimately give the Quality First Urgent Care team greater control over the timing.
“When you’re talking about same-day results, that previously meant using antigen testing, where the sensitivity is usually much lower,” Crosley says. “The hope is that we will soon be able to provide much higher sensitivity using the most accurate test, which will allow our patients to better manage their businesses, school systems, or personal illness and exposure.”
Visitors are asked to pre-register for testing by texting #covid to 37373. For hours and additional information, visit www.quality1urgentcare.com.