UK Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Ky., tested about 100 employees after a cluster of COVID-19 cases developed at the facility, the hospital confirmed to Becker's Hospital Review.
The cluster is in one unit at the hospital and was initially linked to five employee cases. An additional three employee cases were identified after staff and patients in the unit were tested.
"UK HealthCare takes the safety of all patients and employees very seriously and has many measures in place to prevent the spread of all infectious diseases," the hospital shared in a statement Sept. 22.
Kim Blanton, infection prevention and control director for Lexington-based UK HealthCare, said infected employees would get paid time off for quarantining, according to a video of a Zoom staff meeting cited by the Lexington Herald-Leader. She also warned staff against congregating in the break room and taking off masks.
As UK Good Samaritan deals with a cluster of COVID-19 cases, King's Daughters Medical Center, about 120 miles away in Ashland, Ky., recently reached capacity due to COVID-19. King's Daughters reported 22 deaths and 120 new positive cases the week ended Sept. 18. At UK HealthCare system, which has more than 9,000 employees, 91 workers have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic, nine of which had come from caring for infected patients.
Read the full Herald-Leader article here.