People who think they may have covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, should call their health care provider as a first step, Arkansas health officials say.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is offering free online screenings on its website, uamshealth.com/healthnow, and over the phone at (800) 632-4502.
Screening and testing sites are proliferating around the state.
One of them, a UAMS Medical Center drive-thru clinic, is on the ground floor of a parking garage at Shuffield and Jack Stephens drives in Little Rock.
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Little Rock-based Natural State Laboratories in collaboration with Sniffle Health, a telemedicine company, is rolling out several sites around the state. They are listed at ar-covid19.com.
Patients who don't have doctors' referrals are screened by a provider on-site or through telemedicine by an Arkansas physician or nurse practitioner. When appropriate, personnel on-site collect a sample from the patient that is then sent to a laboratory for testing. People are asked to provide their identification and insurance cards but won't be charged out of pocket for the test.
According to its website (baptist-health.com/coronavirus/), Baptist Health's screening locations include:
• Triage stations in the Medical Towers II parking deck at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock and in front of the emergency room at Baptist Health-Conway. Patients at both locations are billed for an emergency room visit.
• Drive-thru clinics at Baptist Health Medical Center-Heber Springs, Baptist Health Family Clinic-Caddo Valley in Arkadelphia, the Hot Spring County Health Unit in Malvern and the Baptist Health Stuttgart Medical Clinic. People should call ahead to schedule appointments: (501) 887-3279 for the Heber Springs location, (870) 245-2198 for Arkadelphia and (870) 673-7211 for Stuttgart.
Drive-thru screenings are also available at:
• Conway Regional Medical Center (conwayregional.org/patients-visitors/covid-19-info).
• Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff (jrmc.org/covid19/).
• Washington Regional Eureka Springs Family Clinic (wregional.com/main/coronavirus).
Washington Regional Medical Center also has a screening clinic at 3318 N. Hills Blvd. in Fayetteville. The hospital's screening hot line is (479) 463-2055.
Arkansas' 12 community health centers offer screenings and testing at 69 locations around the state. Information on where to go is available from their hot line at (833) 508-0774 or at chc-ar.org/coronavirus-testing-sites.
Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers has an "evaluation site." Patients must first call (479) 717-7585 to be screened. Because of a nationwide shortage of testing supplies, only "patients who are very ill and meet COVID-19 criteria are currently being tested," according to Mercy's website.
Northwest Health System has testing sites at Northwest Medical Plaza-Bentonville, 601 S.W. Regional Airport Blvd., and Northwest Medical Plaza-Eastside, 2158 Butterfield Coach Road, Suite 100, Springdale. More information is available by calling (479) 306-7507.
For children, Arkansas Children's hospital is offering phone screenings at (800) 743-3616. (archildrens.org)
Symptoms of covid-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath. A health care provider will decide if a test is appropriate based on the symptoms and possible exposure to the coronavirus.
A Section on 04/04/2020