UW Medicine COVID-19 Testing Site at Angle Lake

Amanda Hodges

First you have to park a ridiculous distance from the building because it's coned off. So if you're sick, fever, etc, highly recommend somewhere else. Most places have drive thru or at least parking a reasonable distance. There were four staff members there and zero other patients, slow testing time, not a problem and awesome they have the extra staff if needed. However, we had to recite name, birthdate, Insurance, phone number at each person even with an appointment and all paperwork filled out in advance. The unnecessary waste of time and resources, it's insane. You could run twice the centers with that many staff if you only needed to repeat yourself twice. I really love UW. That said... having been to almost a dozen other testing locations by all different companies, I would absolutely recommend ANY of the others over this.

Monica Bell

This site seriously risks becoming a point of increased covid transmission in this winter weather. Please, please, please do better, UW. I say this as a UW Alum: I seriously hope that someone with the authority and resources steps in quickly to improve the design and conditions of this operation. The design for this site needs to be seriously reconsidered for the cold weather. Getting my test required standing in line in the cold for way too long. I’ll estimate that there were 15 people ahead of me. And there was no markings on the ground telling us how far to stand from one another. Nor was anyone on staff enforcing us spreading the line out so we were at least 6’ apart. We were definitely not 6’ apart. I wish I had timed it to give an exact length of time so you can have an accurate picture. Since this is a free site for the symptomatic, this means the most vulnerable are being exposed to conditions that are increasing chances of exposure. we all (staff included) were breathing around each other in the cold weather. Some ideas: More heaters. Increased staffing doing the actual swabbing (i.e. 2-3 swabbers instead of 1). Make it a drive-through site, with a walk-up option for people that cannot come by vehicle. Put in the text reminder that you will be asked to wait in your vehicle until your appointment time window. Put in the text reminder that test subjects will be waiting outside in the queue, so are strongly encouraged to dress to protect from the weather (umbrella, hat, gloves, lots of layers). Reduce numbers of appointments available. Put stickers or tape on the ground marking appropriate distance for those waiting. The first check-in person greeting folks in the line asks people what time their appointment is and then asks people to wait in their car until their appointment time window. To be absolutely clear: my concern is not about the professionalism of the staff operating the clinic yesterday. The staff on site there all were professional and helpful. They were being careful about only admitting people with appointments. And one of the staff persons monitoring the line was exceedingly professional and assertive with a woman who raised her voice at him when he told her she could not test without an appointment. These front-line workers need more support from someone accountable that is higher above them in the chain of responsibility and allocation of resources. Thank you for reading and considering my input and observations. (Context: This is the feedback I submitted to UW the day after testing)

Lily Nguyen

Free PCR testing which is great. They key here is you have to book an appointment to get tested. I kept refreshing the booking page every 5 minutes until one showed up. I was in and out after 10 minutes. My result came in between 24-48 hours

Minh Nguyen Huynh

This test site has more room to improve. First, I think the time slot of your appointment doesn't matter. You just need to have one then get there and get in line. Second, unlike the other test sites, you have to get out of the car to get in line. They could have provided some shade for partial of the line (that could get really long in a busy day like these days)...so if it's raining you will be under the weather... Remember to bring umbrella just in case. The wait time for me was a lot shorter than at the other 3 sites I have been to...this is subject to change depending on the day time of the test...so my rating of 4 star is subjective too.