A resident who previously tested positive for COVID-19 has died at Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor, and another health care resident has tested positive for the virus, according to a news release from ACPM Monday.
“The entire Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor family is mourning today,” said Sarah Griggs, executive director. “It is always difficult to lose one of our beloved residents, and our hearts are broken.”
This resident was a roommate of the resident who tested positive on Saturday.
The individual initially tested negative via rapid point-of-care testing on Saturday, but tested positive Sunday after starting to show signs and symptoms of the virus. The resident had already been isolated from the positive roommate and will remain isolated and be cared for by designated staff members.
We follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and confirm any positive rapid test within 48 hours with a follow-up standard COVID-19 test, which took place Monday.
“We continue to prioritize resident and employee health and safety,” said Griggs.
The Cowley County Health Department has been notified and recommends testing of all health care residents.
The community will conduct surveillance testing for all employees and the health care residents on Tuesday. Due to the number of cases, the Cowley County Health Department has again determined Ark City Presbyterian Manor has a COVID-19 cluster. A cluster is two or more non-household cases of COVID-19 associated with a location during a specified period of time.
Ark City Presbyterian Manor will follow CDC and KDHE guidelines for when the resident may come out of isolation.
Under the current guidelines, symptomatic residents may come out of 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.
If asymptomatic, the residents will remain in isolation for 14 days.
“We are following doctor’s orders for treatment protocols and following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention infection prevention protocols,” the manor said. “We will continue with surveillance testing of our staff members.
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has mandated surveillance testing of our staff. 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 staff once a week.”
The news release said all team members are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all staff that an individual should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.
According to Monday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Cowley County has surpassed 600 cases of COVID-19 with a 608 cases so far since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13.
For more information about Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor’s response, go to PMMA’s (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s) website, Presbyterianmanors.org/Media-room.
