Signature Healthcare communications manager Ann Bowdan Wilder contacted the Adair County Community Voice Thursday in response to a report about the way COVID-19 cases are reported in the Lake Cumberland District.
On Wednesday, the Community Voice posted online at adairvoice.com a release by County Judge Executive Gale Cowan after the Lake Cumberland District Health Department reported there were no active cases of the coronavirus in Adair County. The adairvoice.com report also said some family members of residents of Signature Healthcare at Summit Manor took to social media and confirmed they still have family in the COVID wing of the nursing home, which is where most of Adair County’s coronavirus cases have come from.
Bowdan Wilder issued the following statement Thursday night:
For months now, and in response to the facility-wide testing the facility proactively conducted, Signature HealthCARE of Summit Manor has been operating in a novel, redesigned systematic manner to accommodate and care for those residents in need who tested positive for COVID-19.
Summit Manor has 2 COVID units, that house only those residents who test positive for the virus. And a negative unit, that houses only residents who have tested negative for the virus. The numbers of residents housed on each of those units can change daily.
Every day, the facility reports any new suspected or confirmed COVID cases to the local department of health. From there, certain local officials report those numbers to the community.
But what is not reported is how and why those numbers may differ from what members of the community believe or have heard to be true.
The explanation is simple, yet unfortunately, was not included in a local official’s statement to the press and apparently has caused some confusion in the community.
- If on any given day, Signature HealthCARE reports “0” new or suspected COVID cases to the local department of health – that does not mean Signature still is not housing residents who are COVID positive. The fact is, we are; currently there are 16 positive resident COVID cases. There just were not any new, or newly suspected, COVID positive cases to report that day.
- Signature HealthCARE counts COVID positive residents differently than the local department of health and the CDC. Those government agencies require a resident to only have one negative COVID test to be counted as “non-COVID.” Signature HealthCARE, however, requires two successive negative COVID tests before it will count a resident as “non-COVID.” This is out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the utmost safety of our residents and staff.
- So, to give an example, under local health department and CDC guidelines, Signature may only have 10 positive resident COVID cases. Yet, under Signature’s standards, Signature has 16 positive resident COVID cases. 15 on its COVID only unit and 1 in the hospital. While 6 of those 16 may have had one negative test and would be considered “non-COVID” by government agencies, we would count those 6 residents as “positive COVID” cases until a 2nd negative COVID test result is confirmed.
We so appreciate all of the community’s support of Summit Manor, as it means so much to the community members who live and work there.
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The original article can be found at https://adairvoice.com/county-judge-responds-to-questions-about-covid-19-data/
