When her children became ill, and their primary care office could not see them immediately, Bonnie’s family regularly visited Peachtree Immediate Care, where clinicians offered HealthTrack’s Infectious Disease PCR swab.

“Peachtree Immediate Care was our go-to when someone was sick, and our primary care couldn’t get us in quickly,” Bonnie said. “What made the biggest difference was that they offered the Infectious Disease PCR swab through HealthTrack. It changed everything for us.”

Before that experience, Bonnie reports that her encounters with traditional primary care were limited. “Primary care usually tests for three things: flu, COVID, and strep A,” she explained. “If those were negative, we were told, ‘It must be viral,’ and sent home to wait it out. Sometimes that was true. But other times, we stayed sick for weeks with no real answers.”

The PCR swab gave Bonnie’s family clarity. The test screened for a broad range of viral and bacterial infections in a single swab, with next-day results in most cases. “Instead of guessing, we knew exactly what we had,” she said. “Most of the time, the results came back the next day, and they were absolutely worth the wait.”

That clarity often changed the course of treatment. “If it was viral, we knew what to expect and how to manage symptoms,” Bonnie said. “If it were bacterial, we could start the right treatment right away.” She recalled several instances in which the test identified bacterial infections that would otherwise have been missed. “I can’t count how many times this test caught something that would have been assumed to be viral,” she said. “For me, it often showed Moraxella catarrhalis. Once it was treated correctly, I finally got better instead of being sick for weeks.”

One moment made the value of testing especially clear. Bonnie’s oldest daughter had been miserable for days, and Bonnie initially assumed she was overreacting. “I honestly thought she was exaggerating because she was a teenager,” Bonnie admitted. “We did the swab anyway, and it showed she had two viruses and a bacterial infection at the same time. Without that test, we never would have known.”

After moving to South Carolina, Bonnie immediately felt the absence of comprehensive testing. Recently, her youngest child was hospitalized with a serious illness, but standard testing came back negative. “She was negative for COVID, strep, and flu,” Bonnie said. “We had to manage symptoms without knowing what was causing them, and it was scary.” Bonnie later developed similar symptoms herself. “Now I’ve picked it up too, and I still don’t know what we’re dealing with,” she said. “Being back in the guessing game reminded me what a gift accurate testing really is.”

Bonnie hopes more clinics and insurers will support broad PCR testing so other families can have the clarity her family once had. “Doctors could know with confidence when something is bacterial before prescribing antibiotics,” she said. “Patients would get answers instead of assumptions. I’m grateful for the times we had it, and I hope more people can benefit the way we did.”