San Antonio-based nonprofit Community Labs — which provides Covid-19 PCR tests at hundreds of locations — recently launched a new digital results trackerfor customers to follow the status of their sample.
The Community Labs Results Tracker sends customers a text message linking them to a dashboard where they can follow their sample's progress. They see the time they were tested, the time the sample was scanned into the lab, and when the results were received. Customers will then be emailed or texted when results are ready. The tracker is available to everyone tested.
Sal Webber, Community Labs president, said the new tracker was designed in much the same way one might track the progress of an Amazon package delivery.
Webber noted that his labs have also returned to an average 24-hour turnaround time. In recent weeks, this timeline was slowed by staff shortages and other logistical problems, as well as high positivity rates. Now, he said, the 24-hour turnaround time is back after the company invested about $175,000 in additional lab instruments and hired seven additional technicians.
Community Labs operates seven public testing locations from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday at the invitation of San Antonio Metro Health and Bexar County, as well as provides PCR Covid-19 testing at more than 300 school campuses in Bexar County, Laredo and San Marcos. It processes 14,000 samples a day on average.
The organization is a collaborative effort co-founded by Graham Weston, former CEO and chairman of Rackspace Technology Inc. and founder of the 80/20 Foundation; along with J. Bruce Bugg, chairman and trustee of The Tobin Endowment; and J. Tullos Wells, managing director of The Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.
