360 Clinic teams up with Golden West College for COVID-19 testing in Orange County

From left: Dr. Alice Martanegara, Vince Tien, Mike Lee and Angela Huynh.

By Matt SzaboStaff Writer

Jan. 22, 2021 6:53 PM PT

Station 3 at the COVID-19 testing super site at the Orange County fairgrounds is where Angela Huynh works.

The Golden West College nursing student is a bit later in the game than many of her peers. At 28, she already has a bachelor’s degree in biology from UCLA, but she went back to school for the opportunity to become a nurse.

“I decided that maybe I want to be a little bit more interactive, spend more face time with patients,” said Huynh, who lives in Fountain Valley. “I love nursing. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

What no one could imagine was the effect the coronavirus would have on the country over the past 10 months. Huynh got hands-on experience working for 360 Clinic at the other super site at the Anaheim Convention Center from October until early December.

With hospitals closed to nursing students, Huynh got her clinical hours testing and informing patients on the front lines. And now, entering her fourth semester in the Golden West College nursing program in Huntington Beach, she has now become a 360 Clinic employee.

Golden West College nursing student Angela Huynh, 28 of Fountain Valley, takes medical histories on Friday.

That’s a success story to 360 Clinic co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Vince Tien. Prior to the pandemic, Tien was working for home health and hospice company 24-7 Care at Home, which launched in 2007.

When the coronavirus hit, Tien said he, his brother Gary Nguyen and David Ngo partnered with Dr. Linh Nguyen in Arizona, who was already doing COVID-19 testing.

Their new company, 360 Clinic, partnered with the Orange County Health Care Agency in July to run the two super sites, as well as 15 walk-up testing kiosks across the county.

Mike Lee, the chief administrative officer of 360 Clinic, estimated that about 6,000-7,000 people per day are tested for COVID-19 between the super sites and kiosks.

The growing company has not shied away from outside help. Local colleges, including Golden West and Concordia University in Irvine, have partnered with 360 Clinic to provide nursing students the opportunity to earn internship hours at the sites.

Tien, who lives in Huntington Beach, said 360 Clinic’s objectives include taking care of medical needs, being a training ground for students and providing jobs to healthcare professionals.

“Golden West has been really gracious enough to give us a lot of students, and build a curriculum on the telehealth as well,” said Tien, 31. “It’s been an honor to serve the community. I came over here when I was 5, from Vietnam. This is a great chance for an immigrant like me and my family to give back to the community.”

There is a telehealth area at the Anaheim Convention Center site. Dr. Alice Martanegara, the associate dean and director of nursing at the Golden West College School of Nursing, said that the telehealth component is why Golden West’s partnership with 360 Clinic is really so beneficial.

“Our students can obtain hours, but also be able to serve the community, and also at the same time be able to contribute back to 360 Clinic and give them feedback clinically to create more opportunities such as the mobile clinic, the kiosks and so forth,” Martanegara said. “The partnership is very instrumental in ensuring not just the folks who can come to the testing site, but also to make sure that we are able to deploy students to go into the community to carry on the service.

“OK, it’s great that you get tested, but what is the follow-up? That’s the clinical collaboration piece that I think makes us very unique.”

Huynh said she is happy on the front lines, where she will bounce from car to car to check on patients and their symptoms at the drive-through facility. If the symptoms are worrisome enough, options include referring a patient to urgent care or calling an ambulance.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Huynh said. “It’s something that I didn’t anticipate that I would ever do. When I’m in nursing school, we focus a lot on acute care, direct patient contact in the hospital. This is more community-based care, and it’s a different perspective. It keeps us grounded, like OK, you don’t have to just go to the hospital and do all these procedures on these patients. Sometimes it’s just educating them, informing them about their health.”

360 Clinic co-founder Vince Tien at the COVID-19 testing super-site in Costa Mesa on Friday.

Data provided by the Orange County Health Care Agency on Friday showed one new coronavirus death, and 892 daily positive cases received.

The county’s death toll due to COVID-19 now stands at 2,547, while 218,741 cases have been counted to date, including deaths.

Hospitalizations due to the virus are at 1,896, and 516 of those cases are currently in the intensive care unit. There have also been 2,519,520 COVID-19 tests administered to date, including 25,057 tests reported Friday.

The healthcare agency estimates that 150,088 people in the county have recovered from COVID-19.

Here are the latest cumulative coronavirus case counts and COVID-19 deaths for select cities in Orange County: