Kalispell Regional Healthcare recently began offering advanced COVID-19 testing capabilities through new, high-end technology that is considered by health-care professionals to be the “gold standard” for detecting the virus that causes the disease.

According to hospital officials, the testing platform is typically only used by large research institutions, but is now available in Kalispell Regional’s in-house molecular lab. The new equipment uses Polymerase Chain Reaction, otherwise known as PCR, to detect actual genetic material of the novel coronavirus.

This process is different from the antigen tests that are typically used when determining whether patients have contracted COVID-19. According to an informational document provided by Kalispell Regional, antigen tests have higher rates of false negatives and false positives.

So by using PCR instead, the hospital not only has increased access to COVID-19 testing, but can receive more accurate, timely results. Folks will typically know their results within three days of getting tested, but sometimes it may take up to five days depending on volume.

Officials say Kalispell Regional is the first hospital in Montana to offer the highly-accurate testing in-house, cutting down significantly on the time and resources it takes to send specimens out-of-state.

“We can use this very sensitive type of testing for a number of infectious diseases. It enables us to detect positive cases more rapidly and gives confidence in the results,” Kalispell Regional Infectious Disease Physician Jeffrey Tjaden said in a prepared statement. “By investing early and aggressively to secure this testing, we can serve our community now and in the future.”

In May, hospital officials reached out to Missoula-based company FYR Diagnostics. At the time, the company’s team of molecular diagnostic experts had identified and thoroughly reviewed a testing solution that they found was “sustainable, highly accurate and had the capacity for high throughput.” That research and knowledge was then extended to Kalispell Regional, which enabled the hospital to implement its own testing platform in order to “serve patients’ needs now and in the future.”

Components for the platform started arriving in late August. The system became fully operational by Oct. 26 after all the equipment had been installed and staff members were trained.

Although Kalispell Regional has used a handful of other methods to perform in-house testing since the pandemic began, the equipment has added greatly to the hospital’s testing capabilities.

The platform can test large batches of approximately 100 specimens at a time. Data from the hospital shows that in the first two weeks after the platform became fully operational, Kalispell Regional performed more than 3,000 COVID-19 tests at its lab, which is more than the total number of in-house tests performed from March through August.

TO DATE, the platform has been used to gather rapid results for a wide variety of patient populations.

Most recently, it has been used to help the hospital battle an ongoing outbreak at the Brendan House, a long-term care facility that operates under the Kalispell Regional Healthcare umbrella.

As of Monday, 48 of the facility’s residents have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the Brendan House website, two of those positive individuals were admitted to Kalispell Regional Medical center for inpatient care on Nov. 13. The other residents remain isolated in the facility and “are being closely monitored and receiving appropriate care.”

Also on Monday, weekly employee surveillance COVID-19 testing resulted in staff members testing positive. According to the website, staff members who have tested positive have been immediately quarantined and will remain out of the facility until approved for return to work by the Flathead City-County Health Department and Employee Health Services.

The in-house molecular lab has been instrumental in addressing the outbreak. Among other benefits, rapid testing has allowed the Brendan House to pinpoint both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals and isolate them sooner from the rest of the population.

“COVID-19 can present with a variety of symptoms such as those seen with a cold or the ‘flu’ and patients can even have no symptoms,” Tjaden said. “It is important to test and identify all those persons infected with COVID-19, even asymptomatic ones, as they can unknowingly be transmitting the infection to other people.”

Aside from being used to assist with the Brendan House outbreak, the testing technology also recently allowed Kalispell Regional to launch a drive-thru testing service in Kalispell.

The option became available on Oct. 26 and provides COVID-19 testing to those who have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, as well as patients experiencing minor symptoms such as a slight cough or sore throat.

Kalispell resident Duke Tomlinson was one of the first to use the drive-through service when his five year old started showing symptoms and was told he should get tested before returning to school.

“We went to the drive through, filled out our paperwork, pulled up to the tent, and everyone was so nice and helpful,” Tomlinson said. “It was so quick and we got our results much sooner than expected, which was really helpful so he could return to school and I could return to work.”

The drive-thru is located at 66 Claremont Street in Kalispell and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com