Parsons Presbyterian reports 2 positive COVID-19 tests

One employee and one resident tested positive for COVID-19 this week at Parsons Presbyterian Manor.

“We continue to be vigilant in practicing stringent infection control to protect the residents and staff,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness. “Our campus had a focused infection control survey on Thursday, and the surveyor found no deficiencies in our practices.”

Parsons Presbyterian Manor is testing residents and staff twice a week. One health care resident tested positive in testing on Monday, December 7, and one essential health care worker tested positive in Thursday’s testing.

The employee is an essential health care worker who last worked December 10. The employee passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment as required.

The new positive resident has been moved to the designated COVID-19 isolation area to be cared for designated staff following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for infection prevention and control and physician’s orders.

The campus had a focused infection control survey due to the outbreak this week. The survey was conducted on Thursday, and the surveyor found no deficiencies in infection control practices.

We have notified the Labette County Health Department and will continue with mass testing December 14. Our total new cases for this week is two – one employee and one resident.

We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the resident may come out of isolation. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic residents may leave isolation when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of the resident’s fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and the resident’s symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive residents will quarantine for 10 days.

We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the 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 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 or contractors will quarantine for 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 have been screening 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.

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