Free respiratory testing Program

The Washington State Department of Health is piloting no-cost diagnostic testing and sequencing of viral respiratory pathogens from Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs). We think you would be an ideal facility to partner with our LHJ in this project. The only ask from the SNF is to provide specimens on symptomatic residents within 3 days of respiratory symptoms (symptom definition to be provided). The up-front effort would be in training on specimen collection and submission process.

Some of the benefits to your facility would include:

No-cost PCR kits for COVID, Influenza, and RSV
No-cost shipping through courier service
Expediated testing to aid in removing SNF from outbreak status
COVID sequencing to determine strain identification and potential transmission pathway

If you decide you would like to participate:

You would need to provide 1. bed size, 2. address, 3. contact person, 4. contact phone #, 5. contact email address
We would provide a short training on the definition and specimen collection, introduce you to the Lab Web Portal (LWP) submission process, and a courier service would be established
DOH would send 5 specimen kits to start, which can be replenished as needed

Please let me (amanda.reilly@co.snohomish.wa.us) know if you are interested in partnering with DOH.

Upcoming DOH LTC Q&A Call

WA DOH is putting on a general Q&A call for all long-term care facilities in the state. They will have representatives from DSHS, DOH, LeadingAge and other organizations on the call to answer questions.

I don't yet have the exact date for the call, but they are looking for facilities who can come prepared ahead of time with questions so that they can make sure they have participation. Once I have a date, a will be reaching out to see if any of our facilities can commit to being there and bringing questions.

Listeria and Supplement Shakes

If you have not already done so, please read this CDC food safety alert and make sure any frozen supplements that match the recalled products are disposed of.

Listeria Outbreak Linked to Supplement Shakes | Listeria Infection | CDC

Contact Info and Newsletter Archive

I know I talk to many of you regularly and I am very grateful for our partnership! For those of you who I still need to get to know more, please feel like you can call me any time or send an email about a question - no matter how small.

Amanda Reilly | amanda.reilly@co.snohomish.wa.us | Cell: (425) 359-2364

If I just added you to this listserv, please check the archive of messages here: Notify Me • SNF Infection Control