COVID-19 Testing At FMDH

Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital is following the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) clear guidelines for prioritizing COVID-19 testing. This ensures that both state and local testing supplies are used responsibly and in a way that ensures we have them when we need them. It is important that we balance the need to perform tests for purposes of establishing the presence of the disease in our community with the ability to provide diagnostic information to health care providers caring for patients that are very sick.

We are committed to taking care of our community in the present, as well as looking at ways to preserve our ability to care for patients as this pandemic progresses over the next several weeks to months. Tests are based on a case-by-case basis. Specific criteria (established by the CDC) is used to determine which patients are tested.

People who are considered a priority have two things: symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as fever of over 100.4 degrees, cough and loss of breath, and exposure to someone with a confirmed case or recent travel to a high risk area. People who have symptoms severe enough for hospitalization or other significant medical illnesses are also considered part of the high risk group.

If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, please call our free triage line at 406-228-3509 and our healthcare providers will evaluate your symptoms and explain your best course of action.