Farmington Presbyterian Manor gives an update on COVID-19 testing

One direct resident care employee and one non-direct resident care employee have tested positive for COVID-19 at Farmington Presbyterian Manor.

As part of ongoing surveillance testing, 133 employees were tested on Wednesday, September 24. Of those tested, 132 were negative and 1 employee tested positive. The employee last worked September 22. The employee notified the campus September 23 that a close personal contact had tested positive for the virus. The employee was removed from the work schedule and instructed to participate in Wednesday’s employee testing. The positive result was received Saturday morning. The employee had tested negative in prior rounds of surveillance testing.

The second employee, who is does not provide direct resident care, passed pre-shift screening and wore personal protective equipment on their last shift worked September 25. After the shift, the employee began to experience signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The employee learned a close personal contact tested positive for the virus and sought testing on Sunday, September 27. The employee called the campus to report the positive result on Monday, September 28.

The St. Francois County Health Department has been notified of the new positive tests. We will continue with employee surveillance testing as required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

All residents were tested Monday, September 28, at the direction of the St. Francois County Health Department, and all residents tested negative for the virus. Residents will be tested weekly until the campus goes 14 days without a positive test.

Surveillance testing requires 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 our county positivity rate for COVID-19 tests, our campus is testing employees twice a week. Employees were also tested September 28 and will be tested again September 30.

Families were notified by telephone of the positive results. The employees who tested positive are recovering outside of the community.

“We will continue to keep the safety of our residents and employees top of mind,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s vice president for health and wellness and chief infection preventionist.

All employees who test positive will remain in isolation until cleared to return to work by the St. Francois County Health Department. Under the current CDC guidelines, symptomatic employees 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. 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.

Farmington Presbyterian Manor continues to screen all employees as they enter the community building for a shift and before they have any direct contact with residents.  In addition, staff members are wearing masks per CDC recommendations.

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