The Need
The Seattle area was the initial U.S. epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the City quickly took steps to isolate and control the virus. Our colleagues in the Seattle Fire Department developed experience conducting COVID-19 tests for first responders and Long-Term Care Facility residents and workers. Around the same time, the University of Washington (UW) Medicine’s Pathology Department also developed bench space to accommodate a high volume of community testing. When these partners came together to provide accessible testing to the residents of Seattle, the only thing missing was a front-end experience and registration system to tie all the pieces together in a way that would normalize and scale testing, which is where Innovation & Performance came in.
Our Approach
IP sought early support from U.S. Digital Response to do a nationwide review of testing registration software based on early requirements. Solv, a healthcare startup, emerged as a strong fit and offered to partner with us to rapidly develop features to make the software work in the context of Seattle’s COVID-19 Testing Sites. The software enabled the City to have an appointment system, collect insurance, create a mass lab requisition, and leverage the barcode system and portal that UW Medicine – Pathology developed. In addition, we needed a website to host the links to the booking pages, which was developed by Seattle IT.
The Results
With only 10 days to develop the system, including both the technical and human aspects to how patients navigate from the website to the physical site, IP relied on the partnership with US Digital Service and Solv to deliver. The City of Seattle launched four free COVID-19 testing sites that have tested over 800,000 people in the city, deliver results within 12-48 hours, and get 4.9/5 star reviews across all the sites. The model was then scaled to six additional mass testing sites across South King County in partnership with Public Health: Seattle & King County. The mass testing sites across Seattle and King County have tested over 1,240,066 people, providing real-time insights into positivity rates across geographic and demographic groups.
Read More
Solv Webinar, ‘A case study of the City of Seattle’s COVID-19 testing program’