COVID-19 Test Requirements for Patients
For everyone’s safety, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles requires COVID-19 testing for all patients who are:
- Admitted to the hospital, or
- having certain procedures.
There are many types of COVID-19 tests available.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles only accepts certain types of tests. Please make sure your testing location meets CHLA’s requirements. If it does not, your admission or procedure may be delayed until another test can be done.
CHLA will accept the lab report of a test if it is:
- Done within 72 hours (3 days) of your scheduled admission/procedure, with no new COVID-19 symptoms or exposures since the test was completed
- A nasopharyngeal (NP) test, combined oropharyngeal and nares specimen type, or nares only specimen type
- A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
Make sure your testing location:
- Uses one of these methods
- Clearly documents the test and collection type on the lab report
- Gives you a copy of the lab report
CHLA will NOT accept these types of tests:
- Antigen test
- Antibody or serology (IgG, IgM, IgA) test
- Abbot ID Now test
If you don’t know if a specific test type will be accepted, please call 323-361-5331, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to check with CHLA before scheduling a test.