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Florida Dumps Quest Diagnostics As Testing Company After Quest Dumps Months Old COVID-19 Test Data
September 1, 2020
Tuesday, at the direction of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) will be severing all ties with Quest Diagnostics after Quest’s failure to follow Florida law and report all COVID-19 results in a timely manner. Quest’s failure to report nearly 75,000 results dating back to April means most of the data in today’s upload – while it will have historical significance – will have little impact on the status of the pandemic today.
Per Quest, all individuals that tested positive were notified of their results. Therefore, while significant, this unacceptable dump of test results is a data issue and does not impact the health of individuals or the spread of COVID-19 in Florida. Quest Diagnostics is a large, nationwide lab that provides testing at private sites, as well as performing limited testing through the state.
Upon announcing this action, Governor DeSantis said, “The law requires all COVID-19 results to be reported to DOH in a timely manner. To drop this much unusable and stale data is irresponsible. I believe that Quest has abdicated their ability to perform a testing function in Florida that the people can be confident in. As such I am directing all executive agencies to sever their COVID-19 testing relationships with Quest effective immediately.”
Monday night, August 31, the Governor’s office was informed that nearly 75,000 tests, dating as far back as April, were to be entered into the DOH COVID-19 monitoring system. While the data, for the most part were over two weeks old – with some being almost five months old – the state incorporated information that would be useful and included the rest in the interest of transparency.
Without the backlog of Quest results, the positivity rate for new cases on August 31, 2020 is 5.9%. With the Quest data dump, Tuesday’s number reflected 7,643 total new cases with a 6.8% positivity rate.
Comments
10 Responses to “Florida Dumps Quest Diagnostics As Testing Company After Quest Dumps Months Old COVID-19 Test Data”
I heard nothing of this massive gap in Quest reporting until the “dump” was reported. Did anyone else?
Makes me wonder what the Fla state health dept, or whoever receives the reports was doing at the time? Were they not monitoring this at all? Accountablity shouldn’t stop with the contractor – there should be an investigation of state health dept efforts here, and throughout the state’s anemic involvement. What are we paying taxes for??
My husband and I have Medicare and Tricare for Life insurance. We use Quest lab
at the medical center where our doctor is at. Will it remain open and do we have
to pay for our testing.
Back in May I had two tests at UWF and both times was told to call the number they gave me. I did and was given another number to call did so countless calls and multiple message spanning two months I started getting a recorded message.. in July I was told they were negative. Ive been turned away by my trusty VA provider at the door because as all along I was saying I had been exposed as I Knew I had been back in Mar. Getting sicker and weaker I finally, this past Saturday, l leave the state and I go to Brewton Care and they diagnose me positive in less than thirty minutes. Several injections and I insisted I could drive. I’m in my fifth day on meds and I’m starting to recover. This has been Challenging! As a 30 year distance runner I am “was” healthy! I know that lab was paid therefore they should be held accountable. Just take the money and run??
My experience has been that the quality of lab services has dropped considerably at the medical facility I use since they contracted with Quest. Don’t know if it’s the company or just the fact that its contracted out now.
Thank you Governor!
It’s refreshing to see someone holding government contractors accountble. Why did they wait until after school opened to release the data? I hope they prosecute who ever was behind this. They should also withhold/return government money for 75,000 tests.
If Quest failed to send in the negative results the the percentages that are being reported are incorrect.
More positive results,more fear, more testing,more positive results. Do you see a pattern here?
Just one more reason to not use Quest. We just loathe them.
“So who will be taking over the testing?”
There are multiple companies that provide the lab side of testing. They’ll get more business.
So who will be taking over the testing? Or are we just going to work on the “if we don’t test, we won’t have any new cases” model?
My father an Air Force Veteran wasted weeks of calling and going up to where he got tested with “QIEST”. He didn’t get his results and was not given anti formation as to his results. Such a disappointment and stress on him.