A Portsmouth-based company donated several Walk-Up Docs, a booth that enhances safety while administering a coronavirus tests, to low-income areas.
Trigger House, a New Hampshire marketing agency, switched gears trying to help in the fight against coronavirus and started making the Walk-Up Doc, which is designed so that the medical workers administering coronavirus tests don't have to continuously change masks and gowns between patients.
The company donated Walk-Up Docs to the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, which serves patients in low-income neighborhoods.
"The reason it’s such a game-changer is because it increases safety for both the person doing the swab and the patients," said Dr. Joseph Panerio- Langer, Chief Medical Officer at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center. "It’s not inside a closed room where COVID-19 could potentially spread from one person to the next. It also allows increased efficiency."
Health care professionals can test up to 100 people a day with the Walk-Up Doc, eliminating the time needed to sanitize hospital rooms between patients.
Trigger House CEO John Sheets said he got the idea after seeing similar models coming out of South Korea earlier this year. The company is currently producing about 100 of these booths a week.
James Hunt, President of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, said provider in the testing unit will be fully adorned with Personal Protective Equipment, but will use external gloves that are pushed through the system.
"Rather than changing the protective gear after every test, a whole series of tests can be done by the provider in the booth with the same PPE," Hunt said.
