COVID-19 testing company improves its system after Winnipeg man receives test results without being tested

A nurse gets a swab ready at a temporary COVID-19 test clinic in Montreal, on Friday, May 15, 2020 .THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

WINNIPEG — A COVID-19 testing company has taken steps to improve its system after a Winnipeg man received a negative test result even though he was never tested.

Travis Delanoy was originally scheduled to get a test performed at the Winnipeg Airport by a Calgary-based company called CardiAI on Jan. 28.

He and his friend were travelling to the United States and they needed a negative test 24 hours before travel.

Unfortunately for Delanoy, a member of his family tested positive for COVID the day before he was to get tested and therefore he cancelled his appointment.

He said he received a refund for the test, but the next day he received something else from the testing company.

"I got emailed my result from this testing, CardiAI, saying I was negative," said Delanoy, "Obviously, I wasn't there … yet I still got a negative result."

Delanoy said it was rather concerning when he got the email and was confused how he was sent this result.

"It makes me wonder about the integrity of any of their tests."

He said his friend still went on the trip and received a negative test result before flying that weekend.

CTV News reached out to CardiAI about the incident and they said upon hearing of the situation they started an investigation into what caused Delanoy to receive the email, noting hearing about the incident was very alarming for the company.

Following the investigation, the company said it found the cause and immediately implemented a fix.

"Our booking system allows joint/group appointments to be booked. However, when one client on the booking cancels and the other proceeds with testing, the client who cancelled remains active as part of the group in our system," a spokesperson for the company said.

They added that when there is a cancellation on a group booking they have protocols in place to cross-verify results, but in Delanoy's case there was human error and a mistake in judgment.

"CardiAI has changed our backend system to handle joint/group booking cancellations/refunds and no shows differently to prevent this from happening again. We are also retraining staff on our procedures. We regret any confusion this may have caused our client and committed to ensuring this does not happen again."

Delanoy said CardiAI also reached out to him after the incident and apologized for what happened.

He said he was glad that it was fixed and understands that errors happen.