Coronavirus Test Collection Center Opens Today
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The community-wide Coronavirus Test Collection Center begins
operations Tuesday, March 24 at 8 am at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau. This is a joint endeavor between SoutheastHEALTH, Saint Francis Healthcare System, Cape Girardeau County Public Health and City of Cape Girardeau.
“We are pleased to begin operations on this joint endeavor to serve our community,” says Dr. Maryann Reese, president and chief executive officer of Saint Francis Healthcare System. “As this pandemic enters our community, it is imperative to keep potential COVID-19 patients away from other patients and healthcare facilities.”
The Center is by appointment only; a pre-screening is required. Anyone seeking a test must first call the Coronavirus Community Nurse Hotline at 573-331-4200. The Hotline is staffed from 7 am to 5 pm, seven days a week. Nurses provide screening for anyone that thinks they have been exposed to COVID-19. If a patient meets the strict DHSS and CDC screening criteria, the patient will be directed to the Coronavirus Test Collection Center.
The Coronavirus Test Collection Center will be open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm and Saturday from 9 am to noon.
If you are experiencing emergent medical symptoms, please call 911 or go to the nearest
emergency room.
If you have mild symptoms and would not have driven to the emergency room six months ago, please do not go now. You should stay home, self-quarantine and call the Coronavirus
Community Nurse Hotline for next steps.
Saint Francis Healthcare System is guided by our mission to provide a ministry of healing,
wellness, quality and love inspired by our faith in Jesus Christ. Founded by Franciscan Sisters in 1875, our priority remains the same: serve all who enter with dignity, compassion and joy.
Serving nearly 715,000 people across Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, our focus is on patients’ outcomes, experience and value.
Anchored by Saint Francis Medical Center, a 306-bed tertiary hospital, and supported by more than 3,000 colleagues and nearly 300 providers in 11 communities, the Healthcare System is a driving economic force in the region. Major services include Primary Care, Gastroenterology, Cancer Institute, Emergency and Level III Trauma Center, Heart Hospital, Neurosciences, Orthopedics, Family BirthPlace and the region’s first Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.