Manor of the Plains has additional employee test positive for COVID-19

An essential health care worker at Manor of the Plains who last worked August 6, tested positive for COVID-19 in a rapid test. This positive test places the community’s reopening plans on further hold.

The employee, who works in health care, passed the screening when reporting for work August 6 and wore personal protective equipment (PPE) as recommended throughout the shift. The employee began experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 during their shift, and reported to their supervisor. The employee was sent home and encouraged to obtain a rapid COVID-19 test. The employee notified the campus of the positive test result once it was obtained.

Manor of the Plains notified the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Epidemiology Hotline and the Ford County Health Department immediately.

“The safety of our residents and staff members remains our highest priority,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness. “We will follow the recommendations of the Ford County Health Department and KDHE.”

The Ford County Health Department has recommended testing of all residents and employees. Testing will be conducted next week. The campus conducted contact tracing and will follow the health department’s instructions for quarantining and isolating employees and residents.

At this time, no residents are showing any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or respiratory illness. We will continue to follow KDHE, Ford County Health Department, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines to monitor residents in health care and other employees for any signs or symptoms of respiratory illness and signs of COVID-19.

Families have been called to alert them to the potential exposure, and all mandatory required reporting agencies have been notified. The community will follow any additional guidance from the Ford County Health Department, KDHE and the CDC.

Employees are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all employees that an employee should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or is not feeling well.

The employee is recuperating at home. We follow CDC  and KDHE guidelines in determining when an employee may return to work.  Under the current guidelines, the employee 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.

For more information about Manor of the Plains’ response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, presbyterianmanors.org/media-room.