Surveillance Testing Transition Update

 

To: Residential care facilities (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Group Homes, and Intermediate Care Facilities)   From: HFEMS Residential Care Strike Team   We want to thank you for your patience and cooperation as we onboard new laboratories and work through operational challenges.   As a friendly reminder, we request you remember to check your spam/junk folders.   Important Notes & Transition Summary: Curative is being replaced by testing at the State lab, MAKO Medical, and the CSU lab. Lab assignments have been finalized. That information will come to your facility via email by Monday, February 1st. If you have not received that information by the deadline, please contact residentialcarestiketeam@state.co.us. Facilities may continue using a private lab as long as it is compliant with Public Health Order 20-20 requirements. Outbreak facilities were contacted by the State Lab on Monday to resume testing immediately. Several facilities have indicated they received testing supplies from CovidCheck. We have confirmed that these supplies are not from CovidCheck, but Covichek, which come from the State lab. Before we were aware these supplies were from Covichek, we instructed facilities not to use them. Please move forward with using the testing supplies from Covichek. Email cdphe_labcoordinators@state.co.us to receive rapid/antigen supplies to test symptomatic individuals or if your facility is in outbreak status and is not testing with the state lab.   Logistics:   By the end of this week, you should have received an onboarding email with instructions to resume testing. Please remember to check your junk/spam folders for these messages. If you haven’t received any onboarding communication by 2 p.m. on Monday, February 1, please notify the Residential Care Strike Team. Courier and shipping changes if your lab is Mako:  In the onboarding email, you will be asked to choose a specific day of the week to have tests picked up by a courier. Instructions for adding pickups during outbreaks are included in this email. Mako couriers picking up completed tests will carry testing supplies and refill your stock during each pickup, which means you won’t have to fill out reorder forms and wait for those shipments. To take advantage of this, be sure to request additional supplies at pickup time.   Curative Testing Kits:   We understand that many of you are unsure of what to do with the leftover used and unused Curative supplies. Curative will be reaching out this week with further instruction for testing kit return shipping. Please do not throw them in the trash. Our State labs do not have the capacity to store these kits. We will follow up on instructions if you do not hear from Curative this week.   Frequently Asked Questions:   Q. Will my facility be penalized for the gap in surveillance testing during this transition? A. No. Facilities will NOT be penalized for the gap in testing compliance caused by the transition. However, once the new labs are up and running, facilities must work to resume testing as soon as possible. For those facilities that do not have an acceptable testing plan, health facilities inspectors may take the appropriate action. Q. Do I have to continue surveillance testing even after all my staff and residents receive the vaccine? A. Yes. The guidance remains the same currently. The hope is that once vaccine usage becomes more widespread both in facilities and in the community, the guidance will change.  Q. What type of swab will it be? A. All new swabbing will be anterior nasal swabbing, which is the lower nostril area. NP swabbing, or the “brain tickler” type, will not be necessary. Q. Will there be a cost to our facility to use the new partner? A. No. Testing through State partners will continue to be free of charge. We have created a surveillance testing transition webpage as a centralized location for the testing information we are sending out through the portal. As always, questions can be directed to the Residential Care Strike Team.