Wichita Presbyterian Manor non-direct care employee tests positive
Wichita Presbyterian Manor’s surveillance testing on Wednesday, November 11, identified another case of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, November 11, 154 employees were tested. With all our test results received, one non-direct resident care employee who last worked November 12 tested positive for the virus. The employee passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required.
Through contact tracing, three independent living residents have been identified as possibly being exposed to the COVID-positive employee. They have asked them to self-isolate, and the community will test them for COVID-19 next week.
Due to the number of cases at the campus, Wichita Presbyterian Manor is now considered a COVID-19 cluster. A cluster is two or more non-household cases of COVID-19 associated with a location during a specified period of time. Since November 1, seven employees and one resident have tested positive for COVID-19.
Health care and PATH residents will be tested week, and beginning Monday, November 16, memory care residents also will be tested weekly.
The community will continue regular surveillance testing of employees. The next round of employee testing will be Monday, November 16. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires surveillance testing of all employees, agency employees, volunteers, hospice, lab and therapy providers at our campus to be tested on a frequency determined by our county’s COVID-19 testing positivity rate. Based on Sedgwick County’s positivity rate for COVID-19 tests, Wichita Presbyterian Manor is testing employees twice a week.
The Sedgwick County Health Department and Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Epidemiology Hotline have been notified.
The employee is quarantining at home and will not be allowed to work until they meet CDC and KDHE guidelines for when an employee may return to work. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic employees may return to work when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of the employee’s fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and the employee’s symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive employees will quarantine for 14 days. Upon the employee’s return to work, we will follow CDC recommendations related to work practices and restrictions.
All residents and employees are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all staff that an employee should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.
For more information about Wichita Presbyterian Manor’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, presbyterianmanors.org/media-room.
