09/03/2020

Morris Health Service’s residents and their staff were tested on August 31^st, 2020 after a staff member had been confirmed to have COVID-19.  We will continue weekly testing of all residents and staff until we have gone two consecutive weeks with no additional positive cases. As of September 3^rd, we have had 1 additional staff member of Morris Health Services Assisted Living test positive for COVID-19. We will be testing again on Tuesday, September 8^th.

	Tests Positive	Tests Negative	Tests Pending	Inconclusive	Total Tested
Skyview Senior Living Residents	0	43	4	0	47
Staff at Skyview	1	21	0	0	22
West Wind Village	0	62	5	0	67
Staff at WWV	0	105	6	2	113

This week, CMS and MDH released new testing requirements for our care center’s staff and residents that are effective immediately. “Facility Staff” is defined broadly, to include employees, consultants, contractors, volunteers, and caregivers who provide care and services to residents on behalf of the facility, and students in the facility’s nurse aide training programs or from affiliated academic institutions.  The requirements outline routine testing depending on our county positivity rate:

• Low: Monthly testing in counties with less than 5% positivity
• Medium: Weekly testing in counties with 5-10% positivity
• High: Bi-weekly testing in counties with greater than 10% positivity

The rule also requires testing in three scenarios: (i) symptomatic individual identified; (ii) outbreak (new case arises in facility); and (iii) routine testing.  While CMS does not recommend routine testing of residents unless the resident leaves the facility regularly, it does require routine testing of staff.

Currently, our policy is to test residents and staff if they are symptomatic, had exposure to someone positive and during a known outbreak in our facility like we are experiencing now. Due to our county positivity rate, we will now be testing all staff monthly as well. This frequency is subject to change pending our county positivity rate.

We appreciate all the support, prayers, and offers of help that we’ve received. If you have specific questions or concerns, please contact Paula at 320-589-7900 or email her at phenrickson@mhs.sfhs.org