Anna Rosenblatt, MPA, is a Practice Facilitator at Cayuga Health Partners where she has been on the frontline of the pandemic, setting up COVID-19 testing sites. Anna was a member of the Cayuga Health team that quickly set up local, large scale, drive thru sampling centers. The current center, built for high capacity, is in the parking lot of The Shops at Ithaca Mall. Anna now works to support nurses making outreach calls to patients who have visited the center to support home isolation efforts and maintain patients safely in the community.
For local residents seeking information, she recommends visiting the www.CayugaHealth.org website. The website has the link to pre-register for the sampling center, if you feel that you should be tested, as well as additional resources on the bottom of the page. For individuals without internet access or with additional questions you can pre-preregister for testing by calling 607-319-5708.
Anna said best practice criteria is being used at the site and a patient would screen in to be sampled by answering yes to either or both of the below questions.
- Have you had a recent onset of fever, cough, shortness of breath, or body aches?
- Have you been in the same room with a patient with COVID-19 in the last 14 days?
The testing is free to all New Yorkers, but if you have health insurance, she suggests adding that to your registration. Testing has been a large undertaking that Cayuga Health has done quickly for the benefit of our community. In the future, your insurer may reimburse Cayuga Health for these efforts if they have the correct information. Anna notes that it has been encouraging to see the outpouring of support from the community by staying home and pooling resources to support the most vulnerable.
Anna is healthcare professional specializing in end-of-life care and population health. She graduated from Ithaca College in 2012 and earned her Master of Public Administration in Health Policy and Management at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service in 2016. She worked as a Project Manager at the Mount Sinai Health System in NYC for a few years before coming back to Ithaca to work at the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute. She moved to Cayuga Health Partners last fall but remains closely connected to her colleagues at the Gerontology Institute.