Employee tests positive for COVID-19 at Rolla Presbyterian Manor

An employee at Rolla Presbyterian Manor has tested positive for COVID-19.

The essential health care employee last worked Monday, September 14. The employee was tested as part of Presbyterian Manor’s ongoing surveillance testing for employees September 15 and that test was negative. The employee notified the community that several close contacts had tested positive, and when the employee began to show signs and symptoms, they asked to be tested for COVID-19. The employee came to the campus for a drive-through test using a point-of-care testing machine, and the result was positive.

“Our top priority is the safety of our residents and staff members,” said Jeanne Gerstenkorn, PMMA’s infection preventionist and vice president for health and wellness. “The new point-of-care machine enables us to check symptomatic employees or residents and get results within 15 minutes for each sample.”

The Phelps County Health Department has been notified of the positive case. Families have been called to alert them to the potential exposure. The community will follow any additional guidance from the Phelps County Health Department and the CDC. Employee surveillance testing was conducted today.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have mandated employee surveillance testing by all senior living communities that offer skilled nursing. 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.

All employees are encouraged to follow CDC guidelines and best practices as these are continually updated. The community regularly reinforces with all staff that an employee should not report to work if he or she is experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness or not feeling well.

Presbyterian Manor will follow CDC guidelines for when COVID-positive employees may return to work. Under the current 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.

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

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