HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Waldron Place in Hutchinson, KS, assisted living by Americare, reported on Thursday two residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Both residents were tested by the local hospital after being transferred from The Arbors of Waldron Place, the memory care assisted living building on the campus.
On Saturday, the community received word that a resident who had been admitted to the local hospital for symptoms unrelated to COVID-19 on July 9 and remains in the hospital has tested positive to the virus. Based on that notification the community on Saturday placed all residents on in-room quarantine and initiated testing for all residents and employees.
A second resident had been admitted to the hospital on Sunday, July 12, for COVID symptoms and that test came back positive on Tuesday, July 14. That resident has returned to Waldron Place.
A special care unit has been established in The Arbors building to care in place for the one resident who is positive for the virus and for any additional residents testing positive. Establishing the special care unit now will ensure that the facilities are prepared should there be more positive results. The special care unit is separated from other rooms through a plastic barrier. It is staffed by employees who do not care for other residents on campus, and wear full personal protective equipment while on the unit. Americare has experience with special care units and has successfully stopped the spread of the virus. They hope to do the same at Waldron Place. Should a resident require hospitalization; arrangements will be made for a transfer.
Waldron Place has received test results for all additional employees and residents of both buildings showing all were negative for COVID-19. All residents of The Arbors will be retested on Friday, July 17, and all assisted living residents as well as campus employees will be retested on Saturday, July 18.
All residents on campus are being checked every four hours for signs or symptoms. In addition, Waldron Place staff is backed-up 24/7 by Americare’s regional nurses who monitor vital signs remotely to alert staff of residents’ change of condition.
In accordance with the company’s pandemic guidelines the community is restricting visitors.
According to Patricia Cokingtin, Senior Vice President, Americare believes transparent and accurate communication with all of its stakeholders is essential.
“Our families, residents and employees were notified on Saturday of our first positive case and again today with individual resident results,” says Cokingtin. “We wanted to wait to share our overall test results with the community once they were received. We think it’s important to convey how swiftly we have responded and what we are doing to limit exposure even at this early stage.”
In accordance with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment the community will test all employees and residents weekly until 28 days have passed with no new cases of COVID-19.