Aberdeen Village reports health care resident positive for COVID-19

As Aberdeen Village continues testing residents following exposures from two contract direct health care workers in September, one health care resident has tested positive for the virus. This brings the campus’ 7-day total to 3 residents and 1 contract direct care worker.

On Monday, September 28, 30 health care residents were tested for COVID-19. Of those tested, 29 were negative and 1 was positive. Due to this additional case, the campus continues to be designated as a COVID-19 cluster by the Johnson County Health Department.

The health department has been notified and recommends testing all health care residents Monday, October 5. Testing will continue until 2 rounds of negative tests occur. In addition, assisted living residents, who were potentially exposed to the positive direct care worker last week, were tested on Tuesday, September 29. The results of those tests are pending.

We also continue surveillance testing of employees. 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 once a week. Most recently, we tested employees on Tuesday, September 29. Those test results are still pending.

“We’re continuing to put resident and employee safety first,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness.

The resident who tested positive is recovering in a designated area of our community and being cared for by designated staff. We will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the residents 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 14 days. Designated staff members are following doctor’s orders for treatment protocols and following CDC infection prevention protocols.

All residents continue to be monitored for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 during each shift.

The Johnson County Health Department and Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Epidemiology Hotline have been notified. They recommend continuing weekly testing in health care and assisted living.

Due to the potential exposure, group dining and activities remain on hold.

All employees and contractors are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. We have been screening individuals as they enter the community building for a shift and before individuals 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 Aberdeen Village’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, presbyterianmanors.org/media-room.

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