90 | MAY 28 • 2020 

D

r. Barry Feldman and 
Michigan Healthcare 
Professionals (MHP), 
the group practice he co-found-
ed, set up a COVID-19 testing 
clinic behind their office build-
ing in March and have since 
tested more than 6,000 people. 
Just like the rest of the world, 
Feldman and his practice were 
taken off guard by the COVID-
19 pandemic. 
Because Feldman’
s primarily 
older, sick patients are especial-
ly at-risk, he had to make an 
important decision. 
“We decided around mid-
March that we were going to 
close our doors to patients and 
go into a virtual lockdown, con-
ducting all of our business via 
telemedicine,
” Feldman said. 
Feldman then went a step 
further. He and his wife Lesley, 
who is also the practice’
s man-
ager, decided to set up a testing 
clinic behind their office build-
ing in Farmington Hills. 

Feldman immediately pro-
ceeded to recruit staff willing to 
help with the rigorous testing 
efforts. The clinic then rent-
ed an RV trailer, which holds 
the needed electronics for the 
testing process, and acquired 
a drive-through tent which 
protects the doctors from the 
elements. 
The doctors in the testing 
clinic consist of Ryan Victor, 
Jeffrey Provizer and Jeff Lipsky, 
and their presence for the 
testing also allows Feldman to 
complete his administrative 
duties throughout the day. All of 
the doctors and administrators 
in the clinic don full protective 
gear.
As the testing clinic has 
evolved, the process has been 
cloned, with two more MHP 
testing sites in Rochester and 
Waterford. Additional medical 
staff Elizabeth Owen, Barb 
Hartman, Rhonda Davis, Eric 
Davis, Jackie Crawford, Sarah 

Dworetsky and Kelly Griffin 
have been helping out with test-
ing at those sites. A liaison, Amy 
Glasser, goes out to procure 
equipment if a certain testing 
site needs it, including anything 
from tape to tents to RVs.
“These people are superstars,
” 
Feldman said. “Rain, sleet, snow, 
they show up every single day.
”
A philanthropic donor from 
California (whom Feldman said 
wished to not be named) donat-
ed protective gear, including 800 
gowns and 700 masks to the 
testing center, which Feldman 
describes as invaluable. 
Feldman and his practice 
started the clinic on March 20, 
testing about 60 patients a day. 
At this point, the clinic is now 
up to testing 120 people a day. 
About 20 percent of the clinic’
s 
testing has come back positive 
for coronavirus.
A whiteboard displayed at 
the clinic, consisting of all the 
data compiled so far, is updated 
every week. As of the week of 
May 18, the MHP COVID-19 
testing clinic has seen over 6,400 
drive-through visits, treated 
22,000 telemedicine encounters 
and kept 1,830 people out of 
emergency rooms and hospitals. 
Feldman and his practice 
are also currently working on 
a research project that will be 
published in the near future. 
The project aims to alert people 
that there will be individuals 
returning to work soon that are 
totally asymptomatic yet have 

the virus. In their limited study 
of testing six industries so far, 
roughly 10 percent of people in 
the study have COVID-19 but 
are asymptomatic.
Many individuals tested by 
the clinic have inquired about 
COVID-19 antibody testing, 
but Feldman believes there’
s still 
more questions than answers 
about that. 
“The problem with antibody 
testing is that we don’
t quite 
know what to do with that 
yet,” Feldman explained. “We 
don’
t know whether infection 
from coronavirus gives you 
long-term immunity. A nega-
tive immunoglobulin doesn’
t 
mean you’
re virus-free. It just 
means you haven’
t formed 
immunoglobulins yet.”
Feldman holds firm that it 
could take many months, if 
not years, to come to a point 
where the virus is understood 
completely and where weap-
ons for both preventing it and 
treating it have been devel-
oped. More than anything, 
Feldman hopes for a cautious 
and prudent return to a new 
normal. 
“
As anxious as I am to see our 
economy and everything else get 
going, I’
ve looked this monster 
in the face, and I can tell you, 
we don’
t want to go back there,
” 
Feldman added. “We have to 
be extremely careful in how we 
start this locomotive because 
once it gets rolling, it’
s hard to 
stop.
” 

Michigan Healthcare 
Professionals Sets Up 
COVID Testing Site

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICHIGAN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

Out of the more than 6,000 tests 
they’
ve conducted, about 20 percent 
have been positive

DANNY SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Health

