In August, the hospital confirmed four positive cases among operating room staff and a separate infection in a staff member at one of its outpatient clinics.
Colorado defines a COVID-19 outbreak as five or more positive tests among employees at the same organization. Once the state identifies an outbreak, it counts any additional cases throughout the organization as part of the tally, even if they are not physically connected, the Mercy Regional Medical Center spokesperson told Becker’s. An organization must go two weeks without any new cases for the outbreak to no longer be considered active.
“So despite our extremely low numbers of COVID-positive associates, the state continues to identify our organization as having an active outbreak,” the hospital said. “We have not experienced any clusters of positive cases in the same work areas in the past month, and have no evidence of any spread of COVID amongst our associates or patients.”
Mercy Regional Medical Center requires mask-wearing at all times, screens medical staff for COVID-19 symptoms daily and is meeting vaccine requirements for its 1,200 employees, the spokesperson said.
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