The number of Henry Ford Health System employees testing positive for COVID-19 has grown by more than 200 since March 12, the health system reported.
As of April 6, 734 employees, or 2.1 percent of the Detroit-based health system's workforce, had tested positive since March 12. As of April 13, 936 employees, or about 2.7 percent of Henry Ford's workforce, had tested positive since March 12.
Henry Ford has more than 30,000 employees. In total, 3,310 employees have been tested since March 12, with 2,361 negative tests and 936 positive tests thus far. Some test results are pending.
Henry Ford spokesperson Brenda Craig told Becker's the total number of employees who have tested positive includes front-line employees, employees who contracted COVID-19 in the community and those who are not directly involved in patient care. She said the health system is prioritizing testing of symptomatic employees, even if their symptoms are mild, in accordance with CDC guidelines.
All COVID-19 testing is done in-house and results are available within 24 hours, the health system said.
About 200 employees are staying home from work, the health system confirmed to Becker's April 13. Some are waiting for test results, while others are either workers who had tested positive and are still unable to return to work or those who are away from work for reasons unrelated to COVID-19.
"The reason we feel strongly about prioritizing testing is that the sooner we know if we have employees who are positive for COVID-19, the sooner we can get them either safely isolated at home or get them the care they need in one of our hospitals. That prevents the spread of the virus. It also allows us to more safely respond to our patients," said Ms. Craig.
Even with employees out, Henry Ford has seen improved staffing challenges over the last week, with admissions declining five days in a row from April 8 to April 12.
Ms. Craig said the health system is "encouraged by the trend but realize we still have a long way to go to continue flattening the curve." The trend and the coronavirus field hospital opening at the TCF Center in Detroit "have allowed us to balance capacity across our health system," she added.
Henry Ford said it has also closed some staffing gaps through redeployments of employees from health systems outside of its region who are not experiencing the same COVID-19 volume and is using volunteers in nonclinical areas as well.
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