Rapid antigen tests at home
Assistència Sanitària offers a testing at home service, using its Home Emergency Service (SUD in its Spanish initials). In this way, it is quickly attending and isolating patients diagnosed with Covid-19.
As an extra tool in addition to all the other steps implanted to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, in November Assistència Sanitària started carrying out rapid antigen tests using the Home Emergency Service (SUD), which allows people diagnosed with Covid-19 to be attended and isolated, quickly and safely.
The protocol is activated by the request for a medical visit made to the SUD by a patient with symptoms of what might be Covid-19. When the doctor makes the visit and considers that there is a clinical suspicion of the disease, a sample collection team is requested to come to the house on the same day to take the samples. The result is available immediately, which allows positive cases to be treated and isolated immediately, as well as testing all the insured people living with the patient, who are present in the house. People who are not present in the house at the moment of the diagnosis are referred to the Assitència Sanitària-Remei Medical Centre, which specialises in sample collection for Covid-19 screening and is located in the Clínica del Remei in Barcelona, where they can carry out antigen tests after requesting a visit.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Assistència Sanitària has attended thousands of people affected by Covid-19, or who have symptoms. Now the Assistència Sanitària-Remei centre has been opened for carrying out pre-surgical PCR tests and contact screening using antigen tests and agreements have been reached with several laboratories to offer voluntary PCR and antigen tests at reduced prices for the insured people who want them. At the same time, different backup steps have been provided for the insured population, such as healthcare professionals and associated centres.
As a whole, these measures have allowed top quality care offer to be guaranteed for all the insured people, making their access to health services easy and fast and at the same time minimising the negative impact of the pandemic on the doctors and health centres.
