Jimmy Baron and his girlfriend needed a coronavirus test before he could go to Chicago to help his sister with their parents. “We didn’t want to come if we there was any chance that any of us were asymptomatic carriers,” Baron said from his parents’ home.
The Sandy Springs resident was able to get tested without leaving the confines of his home after calling the concierge medical company Qualified Quacks. The mobile business is offering tests to residents who aren’t comfortable leaving their homes and are worried they might have the virus.
The test takes a few minutes, but gives patients their results within 48 hours, and sometimes less.
Nurse Adrienne Clark founded Qualified Quacks in December 2018, when she realized her job had become less focused on patients.
“Throughout my career, I noticed hospital patients were becoming numbers,” she said. “Nurses were spending more time charting. … What it meant was we were spending less and less time with patients,” Clark said. “It was detrimental to patients. Just having an extra ten minutes with patients could change care in a life-altering way.”
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At the same time, Clark, a single mom who works 12-hour shifts, realized what’s known as “concierge medicine” could help.
“I remember having the thought, ‘What if doctors could do house calls,’” she said. “I decided I wanted to go back to that model. I felt we could serve patients better.” Concierge medicine is a growing practice that allows patients to pay a monthly or annual fee for direct access to a physician.
Clark and her team of nurses visit between five and 10 households a day. The company charges a flat rate of $250 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Friday and weekend or night house visits are $450. While the company doesn’t accept insurance, patients can receive an itemized bill to provide to their insurance for reimbursement.
With the uptick in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, Clark began offering the tests last month on her house visits. She offers the nasal swab for $66 and antibody tests for $150. The tests are sent to an Atlanta lab, which gets the results back within 48 hours. So far, Qualified Quacks has tested 100 people for COVID-19, including 58-year-old Atlanta real estate agent and former radio personality Baron.
“It’s a swab and it goes in your nose and it goes all the way to the back of the nether regions of your throat, but it feels like it’s touching your brain and the back of your eyeball,” Baron said. He posted a video of him taking the exam on his Facebook page.
“It’s not a pleasant experience, but it’s over quickly,” he said.
Baron and his girlfriend stayed in his home until his results came back. He then made the 11-hour ride north to see his parents, who have been “quarantining very vigilantly.”
“We would not have entertained the idea of visiting my parents had we not been able to get the test done,” he said.
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