This article has been revised with information on Assisted Living professionals’ participation in the LTC Survey and timing of the surveys.
The Indiana Department of Health (IDH) briefed a vaccine stakeholder committee on November 13, 2020 about the status of the COVID-19 Vaccine rollout. Dr. Kris Box, IDH Commissioner, made it very clear that LTC front line staff are the first priority for receiving the vaccine. After LTC comes hospital, dialysis, and other critical health care professional and support. “LTC” includes skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities.
LTC Survey This Weekend
To best coordinate distribution and access to vaccine by the LTC profession, IDH is working on a survey for LTC professionals to complete. The survey will be sent Saturday, November 14th and resent on Monday, November 16th. Most skilled nursing facility staff will receive the survey will receive the survey via text message and to be completed via mobile phone. IDH has also provided this survey link for Assisted living staff and any other skilled nursing staff that does not receive the text message:
LTC COVID-19 VACCINE SURVEY
This questionnaire is confidential and aims to gauge staff willingness to have the COVID-19 Vaccine as soon as it becomes available. The IDOH is working with Probari to push out this survey, so please alert your staff that this text message is coming and that the message is legitimate and they are encouraged to respond. The survey link will be formatted for mobile phones and should be able to be completed in under a minute. Below is a screenshot of the message:
LTC access to the vaccine will be through both the CVS/Walgreens partnership that the Federal government has coordinated and with the IDH program. IDH is reaching out directly to all LTCs that did not choose a vaccine partner during the CVS/Walgreens enrollment process.
IDH’s program is starting with five (5) pilot hospitals and those hospitals will receive the first doses when the vaccine is approved. The hospitals are Deaconess Evansville, Clark Memorial, Parkview, IU Health Methodist, and Community Hospital Munster. As more vaccine becomes available, the IDH program will roll out to forty-seven (47) hospitals across the state.
For LTC professionals that do not get the vaccine in their facility via the CVS/Walgreens partnership, LTC professionals will have to travel to the hospital sites that IDH is coordinating with for distribution of the vaccine. These hospitals will be performing outreach themselves in addition to more information that will come from IDH. Vaccine is being distributed based on where all health care workers live, so if LTC professionals get the vaccine via the IDH-hospital program the LTC professional should go to the designated hospital based on their home address, not their work address. Again, more information will be available on these details soon.
To access the IDH presentation from the briefing, click here.