Hundreds screened at Student Health Services

The UTRGV Health Clinics and School of Medicine have taken safety measures to protect their staff and patients from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rick Gray, director of Student Health Services, said the clinic has screened close to 300 students. 

“This is just screening. Only students that meet two of the four criteria will be eligible for actual testing,” Gray said.

Some of the criteria involve traveling to areas that are listed as high risk, respiratory illness, fever and if a member of the household was considered a person under investigation by the county health department. 

Gray said they are trying to do as much as their normal business and go from there. 

“We were open on Saturday and Sunday the first weekend, [March] 14 and 15,” he said. “We saw very few students, so we decided that was not a good use of our resources. So, now, the clinic is open normal hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”  

Asked if the clinic has testing kits for the coronavirus, Gray replied, “We can collect samples and send them off to an outside lab. It’s a complex test and only high-level labs can perform that test.”

He said a challenge during this pandemic is uncertainty.

“Not knowing what the virus does or doesn’t do over time,” Gray said. “Does it just go away, does it come back? A lot of issues like that, and just the fact that it’s disrupting our entire routine.”  

Michael Dobbs, chief medical officer for the School of Medicine, said the UTRGV Health Clinics have focused their time on getting their staff and students ready. 

“The biggest thing about readiness is to make sure that you have the right equipment and the right training for your people,” Dobbs said. “So, we ordered personal protective equipment, things like masks, gowns and gloves.” 

He said they have trained their staff on how to keep patients that might have the coronavirus isolated so that they prevent the spread of the disease.

Dobbs said the clinic in Edinburg does have testing kits from a variety of sources. He said the number of testing kits are distributed across the clinic sites according to where they think the need is going to be. 

“We report daily on the number of kits that we have to the [Hidalgo County] Health Department,” Dobbs said. 

He said the clinics are seeing patients in person and via telemedicine. 

“We have implemented a great deal of telemedicine capabilities in the past few weeks to be ready,” Dobbs said. “If we suspect someone with COVID-19 based on symptoms, we try to keep them out of our clinic and actually test them out in the parking lot,  you know, manage them in an isolated area. So we’re very careful about that.” 

Dobbs said the clinical process of reducing contact has been challenging but the clinic has been doing it successfully. 

“Early on, getting testing kits was difficult but that seems to be easier at this point,” he said. “Additionally, it’s hard to get enough personal protective equipment, particularly masks.”

Dobbs said the leadership of the School of Medicine is proud of their team at the School of Medicine and UT Health RGV for everything they’re doing to combat the disease.