Stormont Vail CEO apologizes for not telling public about positive employee cases sooner

TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – Stormont Vail CEO Robert Kenagy hadn’t come up with a plan to tell the public if a staff member got sick from the coronavirus. After 13 staff members tested positive, he decided to let the public know.

Kenagy held a news conference Wednesday announcing a 14th worker tested positive and another 100 employees are being quarantined. The first staff member tested positive about 10 days earlier.

The only staff members at the hospital that were told, were the ones that had been in contact with the workers. Before this week, the hospital only reported a total number of positive cases, not clarifying that some were staff members.

“The truth is I don’t recall us having a discussion about notifying or sharing that publicly,” said Kenagy. “That is on us, I apologize for that. We should have and we will going forward.”

Now, the hospital is considered as one of a couple dozen coronavirus cluster zones in the state.

Kenagy said any patients that have been in contact with the workers with coronavirus have been notified and so far none of them are showing symptoms.