COVID testing system funded by Champlin grant

South County Health recently purchased a GenMarkDX respiratory culture identification testing system, allowing for more rapid testing for COVID-19 and other conditions. The purchase price of $97,500 was made possible through a generous grant from The Champlin Foundation, which has granted $600,000 in emergency funds to Rhode Island’s nonprofit hospitals to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. This system allows South County Health’s laboratory to test for COVID-19 and receive results in two hours after specimen receipt in the laboratory.

The GenMarkDX system provides rapid diagnostic testing for respiratory panels and blood cultures. This platform tests for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus the causes COVID-19. All approved methodologies to detect SARS-CoV-2 have been fast-tracked through the FDA under Emergency Use Authorization.

“The Champlin Foundation is taking unprecedented steps to support Rhode Island’s public health response and core members of our state’s nonprofit community,” said Champlin Foundation Executive Director Nina Stack. “The Foundation is making a $1.6 million commitment of new money and offering flexibility to ease restrictions on certain existing grants. Our grants are helping the state’s nonprofit hospital systems acquire the necessary testing equipment to increase COVID testing capacity as well as providing front-line and earned revenue-based nonprofits with capital liquidity during trying and uncertain economic times.”

The $600,000 gift to the state’s nonprofit hospitals is one part of a four-pronged, $1.6 million response that Champlin’s Distribution Committee approved in March.