Oklahoma State testing teams do everything possible to get patients their results quickly
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Meeting the Need
The success of the COVID-19 testing lab at the OSU Diagnostic Laboratory was a group effort, requiring leadership support and individuals willing to work long hours to pull it off. Nowhere was that more evident than in the two shifts running the tests on the specimens.
Dr. Akhilesh Ramachandran, associate professor in microbiology and molecular diagnostics at the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, stays at the lab for both shifts. He said staff at the laboratory, which houses the OSU Diagnostic Laboratory, already had a philosophy that work didn’t end at 5 p.m. No night, weekend or holiday was off-limits if someone needed test results. The same has been true for COVID-19 testing. In the first few months, both shifts worked weeks at a time without a day off.
“Some of them were afraid to go home in the initial days of testing when so much about the virus was unknown,” Ramachandran said. “They were ready to live on campus to test for the virus. It has been our life, basically. We are looking at the better good for society. We all have a skill and there is a need for the people in the state. We can help.”
Robin Madden is the lab manager for molecular diagnostics at OADDL who supervises the day shift doing COVID-19 testing. Working from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, the crew knows a person is tied to each specimen.
“We want to get as many samples tested as quickly as possible each day,” she said. “We understand that there is a very concerned person on the other end, and their health and well-being is important to us. We really want to do all we can to help.”
For many weeks, they worked seven days a week. While the number of samples received remains steady approximately 1,000 to 2,000 a day, her daytime staff now get Saturdays off.
The second shift is mostly volunteer graduate students from the veterinary school, microbiology and nutritional sciences. Dr. Sunil More, an assistant professor in veterinary pathobiology, works as a pathologist until 5 p.m., then leads the lab’s second shift. More and his family went to India in December. His wife and daughter stayed behind for a longer visit and have been unable to return because of COVID-19 restrictions. For More, working in the lab has been a gratifying way to pass time he otherwise would have spent alone at home.
Graduate student Girish Patil was in the middle of preparing to defend his doctoral thesis on April 15. He took no days off to prepare. He left the lab long enough to defend his dissertation, then got back to work testing specimens. To celebrate his graduation, the evening shift presented him with a cake topped with a graduation cap. In addition to Girish, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine graduate students Sai Narayanan, Parna Ghosh and Samuel Jeyasingh signed up to be part of the original team, helping launch the evening shift of COVID-19 testing.
“When we started in April, we worked until midnight or 1 a.m.,” More said. “As we did more testing, we became more efficient. The students are doing an awesome job. I don’t think we could have done this without their help.”
In March, April and May, the second shift also worked seven days a week. As long as sample intake remains steady, a typical day lasts until 9 or 10 p.m. with Sundays and Mondays off.
The experience has emphasized the importance of teamwork and unity for More.
“(Before COVID-19), if we did 400 samples, we thought, ‘Oh, we did so much,’” More said. “Now we can do 2,000 samples. If we come together, we can conquer obstacles. Unity is strength.”
COVID-19 testing will continue at Oklahoma State as long as there is a need. Leaders in the lab are quick to praise others. It has taken everyone from supportive administration to people willing to do anything they could to help.
“I don’t think people understand the heroic efforts that have gone into the testing,” Madden said. “It’s not just those of us who are doing the sample analysis. It’s those involved in bringing the samples here, those who are logging the samples and getting everything into the computer, and those who are helping find protective equipment for us. It really is an OSU community effort. We can’t do what we do if we didn’t have all the other people who are part of the process.”
