Aberdeen Village surveillance testing, uncovers 2 cases of COVID-19

In its second week of surveillance testing, Aberdeen Village has discovered two positive cases of COVID-19. These case of COVID-19 were detected during Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandated surveillance testing of our employees conducted September 15, bringing our 7-day total for cases to 2 employees and 1 contracted health care provider.

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.

“We continue to put the health and safety of our residents and employees first. Surveillance testing is another tool in the fight against COVID-19,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness.

The first individual, who is not involved in providing direct resident care, last worked Sept. 9 and passed the pre-shift employee screening. The employee was on the campus again Sept. 11 to complete required continuing education courses, and again passed the entry screening.

Aberdeen Village conducted contact tracing and determined this employee did not have contact with any residents and was not in direct contact with any other employees. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines direct contact as being within 6 feet of a person for 10 minutes or longer.

The second individual is a third party contractor serving in an essential health care role who last worked September 16 and passed pre-shift employee screening. The employee was immediately notified of the positive result received on September 16 and sent home to quarantine. The individual also worked September 14 in memory care and health care and passed the pre-shift employee screening. Through contact tracing, Aberdeen Village did not identify any employees or residents who meet the CDC guidelines for a direct contact.

The Johnson County Health Department and Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Epidemiology Hotline have been notified. The health department recommends placing the residents in memory care and the health care neighborhoods where the contractor worked in quarantine and testing the residents in five days and again a week later to ensure sufficient viral load for testing accuracy. Testing will be completed Monday, September 21, and again September 28. The health department recommends testing residents and employees weekly until the campus has two rounds of testing with all negative results for both residents and employees.

Employee and contractor surveillance testing will be conducted September 22 and September 29.

Families, residents and employees have been notified regarding the positive employee.

Aberdeen Village will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when an individual may return to work. Under the current guidelines, symptomatic individuals may return to work when at least 72 hours have passed since resolution of the individual’s fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and the individual’s symptoms have improved and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Asymptomatic positive individuals will quarantine for 14 days. Upon the individual’s return to work, we will follow CDC recommendations related to work practices and restrictions.

Due to the potential exposure, group dining and activities and outdoor compassionate care visits have been put on hold in the affected neighborhoods.

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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