Coronavirus fuels demand for homebound blood draws

The coronavirus pandemic is increasing the demand from patients to have blood drawn at home rather than risk going to a doctor’s office, said the owner of a Jeannette blood testing company.

“They don’t want to risk exposure. In normal times, they might come to this facility (on Clay Avenue). They want to stay away from the doctor’s office or the blood draw centers,” for fear of becoming ill, said Justine Smarto McCabe, owner of Pennsylvania Automated Services Inc. in downtown Jeannette.

The demand for house calls ramped up with the spread of coronavirus, McCabe said. It’s not a new service for them, because they have been performing at-home draws for at least 10 years, which gives them an advantage over other blood draw centers, McCabe noted.

“Our regular patients are loving us more,” said McCabe, whose father, John Smarto, founded the business in 1969 when he purchased a blood testing laboratory in Vandergrift.

Most of the patients receiving the homebound blood draws are those whose physician has provided a medical reason for the patient to go to a blood draw center, said Cherie Lohr, a phlebotomist at Pennsylvania Automated Services.

A spokesperson for Quest Diagnostics headquarters in Seacaucus, N.J., could not be reached for comment.

The blood draws are critical for those patients because “without the weekly blood draws, their medications can’t be adjusted,” by their physician, said McCabe, whose company tests blood at the office. If a patient is on Coumadin (a blood thinner) and cannot get a proper adjustment on the dosage of their medicine, “a simple paper cut could cause them to bleed out, or if it (blood) is too thick, they could have a stroke,” McCabe said.

The company typically draws blood from 170 to 200 patients a week in sections of Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, said Lohr, one of four phlebotomists with the company.

“We sometimes see between 35 and 60 patients a day,” Lohr said.

To safeguard against the phlebotomists bringing germs into someone’s home, McCabe said they have their temperatures taken every morning.

“We’re trying to keep the patients healthy, not (make them) sick,” McCabe said.

Healthy patients with a prescription for a blood draw, but who are not considered homebound, can pay a $25 trip fee and use their health insurance for the service, Lohr said.

And it is important to keep the phlebotomists healthy as well, McCabe noted.

“We are only offering it to healthy patients,” Lohr said.

The phlebotomists’ temperatures also are taken when they enter a nursing home, Lohr said.

“It has become stricter.”