On Building A Network Of COVID Testing Sites [3+ Million Tests]

Wendy Dahl

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Published: October 8th, 2022

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Wendy Dahl

Founder, Covid Clinic

Founders

Employees

Covid Clinic

covidclinic.org

from Huntington Beach, CA, USA

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Founders

Employees

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My name is Wendy Dahl, Chief Growth Officer for Covid Clinic, a nationwide network of COVID-19 testing sites built up out of the pandemic to help communities across the country treat and stop the spread of the virus.

As CGO, I help lead the team’s ongoing efforts to expand our presence nationwide and increase access to reliable, affordable testing in new markets — especially for underserved and elderly populations. I also work to bring on new partners and add new offerings to our portfolio to continue serving the evolving needs of these communities in an efficient, accessible, and scalable way as we continue to navigate new phases of the pandemic.

Having already established ourselves within the COVID-19 testing space, we are excited to soon begin offering a new range of diagnostic tests, including drug and alcohol tests, pregnancy tests, and tests for diseases like tuberculosis. We’ve also begun our move into telehealth and vaccine distribution.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

The opportunity to work with Covid Clinic presented itself at the height of the pandemic. I had been an event planner for 20 years, but my industry was one of the many that were completely shut down with no indication of when it’d be safe to return to business as we knew it. It was during this moment of transition when Covid Clinic’s President, Dr. Matt Abinante, was working to expand the number of testing sites and looking for someone who could spearhead that effort. We were connected through a general contractor, and he was impressed with my background in managing event permits and layout design.

While interviewing, he paused to note the work I’d done to lead growth strategies for Western Dental, which was a big chapter of my career in the 1990s (while it was still the largest dental group in California). In addition to event permits and layouts, we recognized that I also possessed the necessary end-to-end experience in site identification, acquisitions, and launches that he was looking for as part of his growth strategy.

At the time, the company was still at a grassroots starting point. It was only a few months prior that Dr. Abinante formed the company— when he was one of the first from within the medical community to realize how crucial testing would be to stem the virus. With his sights set on helping as many people as possible within his community, he soon saw the demand for testing was way beyond what he could meet in a single location. There were long lines of people waiting outside to get tested every day and he knew he had to expand his operation.

To administer testing at capacity, we started using Mall parking lots. However, it soon became apparent that having bigger facilities was not enough to adequately deliver services. Dr. Abinante needed to form a company with an executive team. He brought in Matt Collins, an entrepreneur in the solar energy industry, to become CEO and scale the organization. They also reached out to Alan Ruiz, a call center operator and an expert in business consulting, as Chief Operating Officer to run the company’s contact operations. Like both Matt and Alan, many in the team were from non-medical backgrounds— some even paused their existing businesses to focus on Covid Clinic. However, their previous experience made them perfectly suited to respond to the public crisis.

In my case, I was tasked with an important role to help scale the operations as quickly as possible. Now, I’m proud to say that we have grown and expanded into 23 states and have administered more than 3 million tests to date.

As testing volumes level off, we don't need as many locations, so we are looking to push our offerings beyond testing alone to continue serving unmet needs in these communities. As we navigate that evolution, Covid Clinic will remain a nonprofit and continue to do work supporting children, veterans, and aging populations - but we are also excited about developing a new organization that will continue to operate in the legacy drive-thru model, but this time for urgent care.

Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.

The foundation for my entrepreneurial venture probably began right after high school, when I was recruited by Western Dental during my graduation trip. The CFO at the time had known me and offered me a position in the advertising department, which I accepted and served for about six years. I did both corporate and public health fair events, which is how I first began managing site launches. I also managed the company's Yellow Page media buys back when doing so was still widely popular. All of this experience taught me the necessary pre-launch promotional skills that proved crucial later in my career and planted the seeds for what would become my first venture while introducing me to a lot of the same people I work with still today.

When I left Western Dental, I got married and leaped to build/launch my very own planning firm. Initially, I planned almost every kind of event, including conferences, nonprofit fundraisers, corporate events, association meetings, etc. Eventually, I settled into wedding planning. Throughout that chapter, I discovered that I worked best with C-suite executives, especially in the medical and legal fields, as I found that they were consistently able to make good, intelligent decisions and maintain great working relationships.

I loved event planning, but what many don't realize about that line of work is that it's all seasonal. You have to weave in other side work and projects to supplement in the off-season. In my case, I became a speaker and traveled the country to teach people about marketing, branding, and sales. That eventually led me to the world of academia, where I went on to teach eight college courses - a rather remarkable feat for normal professors. However, I love public speaking, and all of my previous experiences made teaching easy for me. I immediately carried those general speaking skills to my work today with Covid Clinic, which has proven invaluable.

Describe the process of launching the business.

While we were scaling during the pandemic, we first targeted areas that had high infection rates. We would also consider an area’s population density and income levels to see if our sites would perform well there. But it wasn’t always as straightforward as determining the right place. There were many requirements to open a new site revolving around licensing and permits. We would often find that, even in places that made logistical sense for us to launch a location, the city would deny us from operating.

One of the most common roadblocks was in receiving national and state certification for the labs to be subcontracted to turn around testing results. We also faced pushback when trying to receive permits at the municipal level. Every city is different when it comes to zoning laws, and the reasons for approval or denial can range from the type of services we offered to the type of equipment we used. But sometimes cities would have other reasons for denying us to operate. This was something that had never been done before. As a result, we, unfortunately, got rejected by a few towns that needed help.

We countered these challenges with two different approaches: (1) we developed strategic partnerships with city officials to overcome many of the municipal hurdles and/or (2) we moved to a nearby area, especially if we knew that town or neighborhood had a high demand for testing. We even set up in airports. We took any possible path to ensure that the communities that most needed access to our testing could be served and supported.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

In our case, there was built-in demand because people needed testing. As for building and retaining customers, I think we’ve thrived because we offer a range of testing options - from both speed, accuracy, and convenience standpoint. We offered rapid tests for those who needed their results that same day, we offered the PCR test for those who needed to double down on accuracy, and eventually, we also offered travel testing, which became a big part of our organization, especially once people began to feel comfortable going overseas again.

We value the partnerships we’ve built with the local authorities of many of the cities we have locations in. These collaborations have given us more options in establishing greater bonds with their communities. For example, our 360 Clinic kiosks (another Covid-19 testing provider that we acquired in 2021) have made us more accessible to people who might be looking for testing or vaccination in these cities— because we were allowed to place these clinics in various city halls or city parks to have direct access to the population.

At the same time, we leverage digital marketing to promote our locations. We primarily work with Google ads or SEO. However, it's important to point out that all of these efforts are done with a communications plan in place that takes into account, forecasts, and strategically addresses the needs of a community within a given timeframe. For example, we would place specific ads to address a certain region going through an outbreak or plan messaging weeks in advance to help people prepare for the traveling season. For these efforts, not only do we count on an internal team to draft communication materials; but we also work with a PR team to help us hone our communication further.

I also think our drive-through model was key to our success. That distanced modality, where patients wouldn’t have to go into an office to get tested and wonder if they would be exposed to anything, proved favorable with our customers throughout the pandemic.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

Currently, we are swamped with another summer surge of COVID-19. For this one, however, we are seeing a variant with a high transmission rate that leads to a moderate number of hospitalizations. The upside is that people don’t feel the same dread that they “might die if they catch COVID-19,” but our services are still in high demand so that they can protect those they love and those who are vulnerable to the virus/variants.

We are also right-sizing and pivoting parts of the organization based on the demand we are seeing. As testing volumes level off, we don't need as many locations, so we are looking to push our offerings beyond testing alone to continue serving unmet needs in these communities. As we navigate that evolution, Covid Clinic will remain a nonprofit and continue to do work supporting children, veterans, and aging populations - but we are also excited about developing a new organization that will continue to operate in the legacy drive-thru model, but this time for urgent care.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

The work we’ve done throughout the pandemic taught me a lot about how to develop relationships with people in which we would recurrently and consistently need to neutralize feelings of fear and anxiety. Beyond just the general fear that stemmed from the virus, we found that we would get pushback on a lot of potential locations (like parking lots and mall kiosks) simply because it hadn’t been done before. It became our job to help guide those people through the process, align them with our mission, and incite confidence in the proposed plan of action.

That learned skill of being able to help people move away from fear and instead perceive the unknown as a positive opportunity to be revolutionary has been greatly beneficial. Now, we have people approaching us to say that they have a space available and ask if we want to set up a shop. In the beginning, it wasn't so - and that evolution has been fulfilling to watch unfold.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We primarily leverage Google Business products, in addition to Monday.com for project management and efficiency. Our sites are also rolling out a program called “Curapatient,” which will increase the speed and efficiency of our reporting as we look to improve the overall customer experience.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

For me, the book How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie has been a great asset to everything I’ve done in business thus far. We are also exploring the topic of servant leadership as a team. Doing so has helped me see our business development team as the team that sets up other teams to win. By adopting the servant leadership mindset, we are helping our people align with our mission, feel supported and encouraged to do a better job, and know that they are not in this alone - because we are right there alongside them.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

I would advise that they find a business coach, as that was probably the most critical step in my own entrepreneurial and business journey. One business coach alone, however, cannot teach you all the skills you will need to launch, run, and scale a company, which is why I've chosen to work with multiple coaches who have different specialties and skill sets ranging from business structure, finances and legal to creativity and high-performance behaviors.

I would also encourage people to gain experience through various pursuits. Sometimes people niche themselves into one role without recognizing that diversifying one’s focus into other areas can be of value. For example, I was able to master risk management while working as a college professor because I had the opportunity to teach the subject. Similarly, being a speaker helped me learn how to influence people in meetings. Think of it like taking the golden threads from each of the roles you’ve had and looking at how you can plug the best of them into the next thing you want to do. I also cannot emphasize the importance of having an actionable plan. As an entrepreneur, I've had multiple plans that looked over different horizons: where would my business be 3, 5, or 10 years from now?

Lastly, I’d remind them that it is important to be open to opportunities that were not initially scoped within that plan. With COVID-19, all of our plans were disrupted in a major way. My entire industry was shut down. Along the path of navigating that change came “my little miracle” (how I view my role with Covid Clinic), which illustrates that sometimes unexpected opportunities can be better than what you’d even thought to plan for.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Yes, the organization is always hiring for a variety of positions. There are certain leadership attributes that I always look for in a candidate, especially in terms of leadership potential. The number one thing I look for in a candidate is a people person who can stay organized and motivate others to do their best. The second is a positive attitude. Someone that doesn't get involved in drama. The kind of person with the emotional intelligence to navigate challenging situations without making them worse.