From our partners at ANCOR:
The White House and CDC announced this past Friday, the beginning steps towards vaccine distribution for LTC settings. The program is available to ICFs and group homes per their response to my inquiry: “There is no size limit for facilities and groups homes for individuals with disabilities are included.”
Starting Monday, providers can sign up to enroll in the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care Program. Through this program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has engaged CVS and Walgreens to secure the COVID-19 vaccine and provide on-site vaccination of residents in LTCF, at no cost to the facility.
Sign up should be done via the REDCap (redcap.link/LTCF) beginning on Monday, October 19. Nursing Homes will sign up via the NHSN portal.
Immunization with a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is a critical component of our Nation’s strategy to reduce COVID-19 related illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. Early in the COVID-19 vaccination program, there may be a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination efforts may focus on those critical to the response, providing direct care, and those at highest risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19. This includes long-term care facility (LTCF) residents (i.e., nursing home, assisted living facility, and independent living facility residents). When vaccine is available, it is important that LTCFs recognize that these vaccines will have requirements for storage, handling, administration, and reporting more stringent than seasonal influenza vaccine and other vaccines.
All LTCFs have an option to enroll in the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care Program. Through this program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has engaged CVS and Walgreens to secure COVID-19 vaccine and provide on-site vaccination of residents in LTCF, at no cost to the facility. This program provides end-to-end management of the COVID-19 vaccination process, including cold chain management, on-site vaccinations, and fulfillment of reporting requirements, to facilitate safe and effective vaccination of this patient population, while reducing burden on facilities and jurisdictional health departments.
Starting October 19, 2020, LTCFs will be able to indicate how they would like to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination services.
When completing the form, facilities will need to indicate participation in the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care Program and their preferred retail provider (CVS or Walgreens). If opting to not participate in the program, facilities must indicate their alternate plan for securing vaccine supply and vaccinating residents.
Sign Up will remain open for two weeks, this decision is not binding and can be changed during these two weeks. Once the forms close, a facility must coordinate directly with the selected pharmacy provider to change any requested vaccination supplies and services.
For questions specific to the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care Program, please contact eocevent494@cdc.gov.
- There is nothing indicating in this announcement that a vaccine is imminent (this is just signing up to be included in this vaccine distribution when one becomes available).
- This is a CDC program.
- Signing up is not binding and providers can opt out at any time should they choose.
- If providers don’t sign up for this program, it will be harder to ask for priority consideration with vaccine distribution for the folks we serve and their staff in the future.
From what I have read about the vaccines, they vary greatly in form and storage requirements, therefore, depending on which ones are approved and when, administration might not even be something we are able to handle in house.
Of note, when I signed up this morning, it did give an option for one to select their own pharmacy first and choose either CVS or Walgreens as a back-up.
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Catherine Thibedeau
Orono ME
207-866-3769 (103)
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