To:
Residential care facilities (skilled nursing facilities, assisted living residences, group homes, and intermediate care facilities)
The State of Colorado, per Public Health Order 20-20 updated on November 10, 2020, now requires at least weekly surveillance testing of staff and residents who have left the building, as well as outbreak testing. Additionally, group homes are now included in the Public Health Order.
Effective November 20, 2020, or at a later date as determined by CDPHE, all facilities must implement COVID-19 ongoing surveillance testing, and outbreak testing as needed, for all staff and residents and must utilize PCR testing for all testing requirements.
Surveillance Testing Requirements
- All facilities must at a minimum implement weekly surveillance testing for all staff.
- Facilities shall implement weekly surveillance testing for all residents who have left the facility premises to interact with individuals outside of the facility in the last 14 days.
- If at any time the county the facility is located in reaches a two-week test positivity
rate of 10%, using the Colorado COVID-19 dashboard, or greater, the facility must
increase testing to twice weekly, and continue at the higher testing frequency until
the two-week positivity rate returns to a rate of less than 10% for two consecutive
weeks.
Outbreak Testing Requirements
- Upon notification of a single positive COVID-19 case among residents or staff, the facility must initiate outbreak testing of all residents and staff, regardless of the presence or absence of COVID-19 related symptoms.
To ensure compliance with the updated Public Health Order, the State of Colorado has partnered with Curative, a national leader in COVID-19 testing, to assist facilities in meeting the new testing requirements. Through Curative, the State will be providing test kits to all residential care facilities at no cost. The kits will be used, for at least, weekly surveillance testing of all staff and residents who have left the building in order to control and respond to outbreaks. Curative has a proven track record of providing test results in 48 hours or less and mitigating outbreaks in facilities located in Florida and Texas. To get this project started, the Colorado Residential Care Strike Team has provided your contact information to Curative.
What will I receive from Curative?
- An onboarding email including your username and a link to access the software and create a password
- Self serve training and onboarding materials to administer tests, use the online software, and ship samples to the Curative lab
- Access to the Curative Training Portal
- A barcode scanner for fast and easy sample and patient results tracking (results within 36 hours or less, on average)
- Testing kits – The Curative test is a self administered oral swab PCR test that is observed by an individual trained in the Curative collection process – they do not need to be a medical professional – Instructional Video
- Return shipping supplies – UPS Overnight shipping costs are incurred by the state, not the local health authority or the facility
What can I expect next?
- A shipment of Curative testing kits and the related supplies needed to test and ship your samples will be arriving at your facility over the next week
- Email Correspondence – PLEASE WATCH FOR THIS EMAIL AND CHECK SPAM IN CASE OF AUTOMATIC FILTERING BY YOUR EMAIL PROVIDER
- Your facility’s username/password email from support@curative.com with subject line “Curative COVID-19 Testing | State of Colorado Partnership”
- Your facility’s UPS Shipping Account username/password email
- The email will go to the Administrator/Point of Contact that you have listed for your facility’s licensure
- If need be, the administrator who received the email can forward the email on to the person you deem responsible for Surveillance Testing at your facility
- A Point Of Contact(s) is needed for setting up the Curative online account. This person/people would have access to all account functions including seeing all patient results and being able to add/create and administer “sites” for testing.
- If you need additional people to have access to the online account in order to check in patients and requisition tests, but who should not see results – this can be arranged directly with Curative in their system.
What do I do after I get my email from Curative?
- Read and follow all instructions carefully to set up your facility’s profile in the Curative system
- Review the onboarding and training materials
- Attend a live training offered by the State and Curative (dates and information below)
- Begin testing! Note that samples must be promptly shipped via UPS Overnight Service to guarantee prompt turnaround time. Be sure to review the UPS Shipping instructions and make a plan to ship your samples. Shipping costs are incurred by the state.
When are the upcoming training sessions?
What will I learn about during the live training sessions?
- Curative Test Kit
- Sample collection best practices
- Storing your test kits
- Curative Software
- How to set up first time testing
- Checking in your resident and staff kits
- Surveillance testing best practices
- For admins: How to look up and download results
- Shipping samples: Using the UPS Portal
- How to use the UPS portal to print labels and ship samples
Who can answer my questions?
