The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is partnering with Northwell-GoHealth Urgent Care to provide prioritized COVID-19 testing to symptomatic frontline MTA workers at the healthcare provider’s facilities throughout the New York metropolitan region.
The new partnership with the state’s largest healthcare provider marks the latest in a series of health and safety measures taken by the MTA to protect its frontline workforce and limit the spread of the COVID-19 at no cost to MTA employees.
“We remain relentlessly committed to doing everything we possibly can to keep our frontline workers safe,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye. “We will continue working to identify any and all solutions we can deploy to help protect our employees. The region simply cannot function without the essential and heroic workers of this pandemic.”
Under the new partnership, Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care will provide priority testing to symptomatic transportation workers a rate of up to 50 tests per day or 350 per week. The partnership between the MTA and Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care is similar to the partnership the organization has with the New York Police Department and Fire Department New York. The agreement expands the range of options available to MTA employees, who are still able to go to their primary care physician or other medical provider at no cost to the employee.
“As the largest employer of healthcare workers in the state, we understand how vital it is to have a functioning mass transit system during this time of unprecedented challenges,” said Northwell Health President and CEO Michael J. Dowling. “Untold numbers of our own employees depend on mass transit to get to work each day. Our relationship with the MTA is a mutually essential one and we look forward to partnering together in the days and weeks to come to make sure that MTA workers can get tested at our more than 50 urgent care locations around the region.”
Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care centers throughout the city, Long Island and Westchester County began testing vital first responders from city agencies this week. Northwell Health-GoHealth will be reaching out to MTA workers who have identified themselves as symptomatic to the MTA COVID-19 hotline and arranging appointments for a range of comprehensive medical exams and diagnostic tests, including testing for COVID-19 beginning April 17.
Northwell Health-GoHealth Urgent Care locations are located at 52 locations throughout the region and are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. To 5:00 p.m. on weekends.
