Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health opened the region's first COVID-19 resource clinic Feb. 8, offering COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and antibody treatments under one roof.
The clinic is at the former Palomar Medical Center Downtown Escondido. The health system closed this facility in 2015 after consolidating services of its Palomar Medical Center in Escondido and Pomerado Hospital in Poway, Calif.
The clinic offers drive-thru COVID-19 testing three days a week, vaccination services five days a week and antibody treatments daily.
"What we have here is what our nation needs — the triple threat against the virus: the identification through testing, the vaccination for those who haven’t contracted it, and the monoclonal antibody treatment for those who test positive," Palomar Health President and CEO Diane Hansen said in a news release. "We are the only site in San Diego County to have this approach, and I believe, the only site in the nation."
Palomar Health has administered the antibody therapy to 50 patients — about two per day in its emergency department since January — and only one individual required hospitalization, a spokesperson told Becker's. The new clinic is equipped to offer 50 antibody treatments daily.
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