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

An essential health care worker at Manor of the Plains who last worked July 23 tested positive for COVID-19 in a rapid test last week. This positive test places the community’s reopening plans on hold.

The employee, who works in health care, passed the screening when reporting for work and wore personal protective equipment (PPE) as recommended throughout the shift. The employee began experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and sought testing Friday, July 24. The employee notified human resources of the positive test result Friday evening.

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

“Our top priority is the safety of our residents and staff members,” 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 the all residents and employees. Testing will be conducted early this 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 guidelines in determining when an employee may return to work. CDC guidance provides for two possible strategies—symptom-based or test-based. Under the symptom-based strategy, the employee may return to work when at least 24 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.