Covid testing returns negative results on 178 residents, staff members
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Finally good news regarding nursing homes and COVID-19.
Clay County Care Center residents and staff were spared a possible disease outbreak, as experienced by several facilities in the nation, after COVID-19 test results on all individuals associated with the center came back negative.
Testing was conducted on 178 people — 75 patients and 103 staff. Forty-five of those staff members tested are residents of other counties including Cherokee, Macon, Graham, Towns and Union, according to Clay County Public Health Director Stephanie Johnson.
The health department and local officials scrambled to coordinate the testing event after the health department was notified at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16 that a care center worker who experienced COVID-like symptoms sought help at Erlanger’s Emergency Room. That worker tested negative, but following protocol strict precautions were taken because it involved a skilled nursing facility with multiple live- in residents.
“A rapid COVID-19 test was given to the patient and that test was negative; however, the attending physician as well as other consulting physicians agreed that they were moving forward with this as a presumptive positive and sent off for a confirmatory COVID-19 test,” Johnson said.
The worker’s confirmatory reports from the CDC certified lab also came back negative for COVID-19.
Testing at the care center began within five hours of the initial notification on Thursday and continued Friday. The care center immediately began notifiying its employees and residents’ family members of the situation and coordination of the testing site came together.
“Thursday night I had my nursing supervisor, communicable disease nurse and our staff registered nurse leading testing while I ran the coordination, messaging and logistic support. CCCC CNAs assisted where appropriate for the residents to all complete testing and we tested all of the staff that was on duty before we left — approximately 100 in total. CCCC’s executive director served as the primary liaison between his corporate office and myself and was assisting his nursing leadership team with family calls.”
Johnson said on Friday morning they received assistance from community paramedic Jeff Ledford as the mass undertaking continued. “As a registered nurse, he was the perfect fit to be able to assist us in testing. We had his help at CCCC with my nursing supervisor and communicable disease nurse to complete testing for the remaining staff. I had three other registered nurses and my laboratory technician at our in-house clinic doing community testing as well as all of the preparation work for LabCorp so that we could assure all of the tests would be ready for pick up by our 2 p.m. deadline.”
Test results were returned quickly.
“We have been using nasal swab kits and currently results are com- ing back within 48 hours. We had made contact with LabCorp on Thursday night before we left to start the tests to let them know what we were about to do and the specifics of the situation. They took care of us and made sure to make us a priority,” said Johnson.
Johnson credited a team effort for the quick response.
“My staff is trained, ready and willing to go the extra mile to do what needs to be done. They were developing their front-line testing plans based on the most current from our on-call state epidemiologist while I worked with other health directors, medical directors and Dr. [Brian] Mitchell to get the additional test kits we needed and the appropriate legal and insurance coverages complete,” Johnson said. “The staff at the Clay County Care Center was on top of it and willing to pitch in where needed. When the health department arrived to test at around 9:45 p.m. on Thursday the majority of the residents’ families were already notified and we were able to hit the ground running. I was in constant communication with our county manager and the chair of our board of commissioners all along the way and their support was with the health departments staff and the CCCC through the entire process.”
When asked if she was a little surprised by the negative test results and how that made her feel, Johnson replied: “I honestly feel like everyone that is in this profession and knew about the testing was surprised at the outcome and after our collective sighs of relief, we were thankful and appreciative of the support and prayers we received from our community. We are blessed.”