Employees test positive for COVID-19 at Parsons Presbyterian Manor 7/29/21

Two new cases of COVID-19 were identified at Parsons Presbyterian Manor after two employees reported signs or symptoms of the virus and received point-of-care (POC) testing.

The first essential health care worker was last in the building on Monday, July 19, and tested negative in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required surveillance testing. The employee began to experience signs or symptoms consistent with the virus and asked to be tested prior to their next shift on Monday, July 26.

The second employee is an essential health care worker who last worked July 28. The employee passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required. The employee, who tested negative in surveillance testing on Monday, July 26, began to experience symptoms following the shift and tested positive with a rapid point-of-care test early Thursday.  

The Labette County Health Department was notified. Because the first employee had not been in the building for more than 48 hours prior to symptom onset, no contact tracing was required. For the second employee, three additional employees will quarantine for 10 days due to exposure. The health department did not recommend any changes to visitation at the community.

Parsons Presbyterian Manor will continue testing staff weekly for COVID-19 in compliance with the CMS testing requirement due to the Labette County positivity rate.

We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the employees may return to work. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic individuals may return to work when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and their symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive employees will quarantine for at least 10 days. Upon their return to work, we will follow CDC recommendations related to work practices and restrictions.

We will continue to monitor residents for signs and symptoms of respiratory illness and COVID-19 on every shift.

We encourage all staff members and residents to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated.  We continue to screen employees as they enter the community building for a shift and before employees have any direct contact with residents.  We educate all staff to stay at home if they are experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.

As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, it should play an instrumental role in eventually moving toward resuming our normal operations. Every person who receives the vaccine will strengthen the protection for all residents, staff and the community at-large. PMMA strongly encourages our families, employees and residents to carefully consider obtaining a vaccine for themselves as well as their loved ones.

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