Reed Improves COVID-19 Testing Turnout
Reed incentivizes students to participate in surveillance testing
Although the majority of the Reed community complies with the college’s COVID-19 testing plan, Reed has sometimes struggled to ensure that everyone shows up for their semiweekly test, and from Sept. 21 through Oct. 9, only 59% of campus residents participated in surveillance testing at least once a week. But by the end of October, that number increased by 16 percentage points.
The COVID-19 Risk Assessment Group has been following up with students in order to identify the barriers that prevent them from complying with the semiweekly testing plan and how the group can improve testing compliance, said COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Health Project Manager, epidemiologist Madison Riethman.
Completed salvia tests. Photo by Victoire Mandonnaud.
“A lot of what I hear is just, ‘Oh, it slipped my mind this week, I just totally forgot.’ Or, ‘Oh, that testing time that I signed up for way back at the beginning of the semester doesn't actually work for me anymore. I have another commitment now, and I didn't know how to change it,’” Riethman said. “Sometimes life gets in the way, and that's very understandable.”
The question of how to incentivize a population to prioritize public health is not a new one.
“I mean, how do you get people to stop smoking, right? How do you get people to get their flu shot? This is a similar kind of challenge,” said Reed College Vice President for College Relations and Planning, Hugh Porter, who chaired the Campus Health Working Group in the spring and summer, and currently co-chairs Reed’s COVID-19 Task Force and chairs the fall College Preparedness and Response Working Group. “Ironically, the problem with COVID is okay, you get a positive test result and honestly, you're hoping for the best. There's no pill we can give you that's going to cure your COVID, so when you get tested, it's kind of like wearing a mask. You're doing it for others.”
Although Riethman recognizes the barriers preventing students from partaking in testing, she stressed the importance of taking testing seriously.
“Pandemics aren't convenient, and nothing about COVID has made our life convenient and easy. But we have made a huge investment in testing, and this is really a cornerstone of our COVID response,” Riethman said. “It is so, so important that our entire community who is being asked to test take it seriously and prioritize it in their schedule, because it is a necessity.”
After the low testing turnout, the Risk Assessment Group began to brainstorm ways to incentivize campus residents to participate in testing.
“We've been trying to make it a little bit more of a pleasant experience,” Riethman said. “I don't think anybody started their year at Reed thinking, ‘Man, I'm gonna get really good at spitting in a tube this year.’ But here we are.”
“A lot of what I hear is just, ‘Oh, it slipped my mind this week, I just totally forgot.’ Or, ‘Oh, that testing time that I signed up for way back at the beginning of the semester doesn't actually work for me anymore. I have another commitment now, and I didn't know how to change it,’” Riethman said. “Sometimes life gets in the way, and that's very understandable.”
The question of how to incentivize a population to prioritize public health is not a new one.
“I mean, how do you get people to stop smoking, right? How do you get people to get their flu shot? This is a similar kind of challenge,” said Reed College Vice President for College Relations and Planning, Hugh Porter, who chaired the Campus Health Working Group in the spring and summer, and currently co-chairs Reed’s COVID-19 Task Force and chairs the fall College Preparedness and Response Working Group. “Ironically, the problem with COVID is okay, you get a positive test result and honestly, you're hoping for the best. There's no pill we can give you that's going to cure your COVID, so when you get tested, it's kind of like wearing a mask. You're doing it for others.”
Although Riethman recognizes the barriers preventing students from partaking in testing, she stressed the importance of taking testing seriously.
Graphic Courtesy of Reed College
“Pandemics aren't convenient, and nothing about COVID has made our life convenient and easy. But we have made a huge investment in testing, and this is really a cornerstone of our COVID response,” Riethman said. “It is so, so important that our entire community who is being asked to test take it seriously and prioritize it in their schedule, because it is a necessity.”
After the low testing turnout, the Risk Assessment Group began to brainstorm ways to incentivize campus residents to participate in testing.
“We've been trying to make it a little bit more of a pleasant experience,” Riethman said. “I don't think anybody started their year at Reed thinking, ‘Man, I'm gonna get really good at spitting in a tube this year.’ But here we are.”
Now the testing center plays music in the background, and staff set up privacy curtains to make the large open space of the gym seem less intimidating. The Risk Assessment Group also started a raffle where every week a student who participated in testing can win a $50 gift card. For Halloween and Election Day, the testing center even featured individually wrapped themed-cookies, Riethman said.
The Risk Assessment Group is also working to make rescheduling testing appointments easier. “I monitor an inbox where people can email any time and say, ‘Hey, I'm having this challenge with my testing,’ and I can reschedule you,” Riethman said.
The Risk Assessment Group has also increased communication with students that don’t show up for testing, Riethman said. “The last couple weeks, we've been really following up with students to the point of even directly following up with them via email or phone call, really just to address the barriers that are there and make sure that we can get people in for testing,” Riethman said. “As we've been doing that process, we've seen a marked improvement on the number of people who are showing up for testing.”
From Oct. 12 through Oct. 30, 75% of campus residents participated in surveillance testing at least once a week, a 16 percentage point increase from the three weeks prior, according to Reed’s “COVID-19 Prevention & Response Plan Communications” page.
“If you're a college student at a liberal arts college, you're being tested more than anybody except maybe people going into the White House,” Porter said. “It's an anomaly, and I think the whole country is going to learn a lot about this whole disease and how to manage it from colleges that are able to test like we are. So my hat's off to the people who are showing up and doing their testing. It's a big request.”