MVHS vaccinates over 100 residents, 100 staff at its long-term care facility

UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) on Monday started vaccinating residents and staff in the MVHS Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (RNC), its long-term care facility.

The MVHS effort is part of a federal program that started statewide on Monday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it’s expected that residents and staff at 618 facilities across the state will get vaccinated over the next two weeks, with the first doses administered Monday.

The federal pharmacy partnership for long-term care (LTC) program provided the vaccines and the staff administering the vaccine. It’s separate from the vaccines that arrived at MVHS last week to inoculate health-care workers. MVHS is partnering with Walgreens in this program and planned to administer the vaccines to more than 100 residents and 100 staff members on Monday.

“The importance of the COVID vaccine to our vulnerable population cannot be overstated,” Brandon Johnson, executive director of MVHS RNC, said in a release. “This disease is especially risky to residents living in long-term care facilities, so having this vaccine provides hope that we are moving in the right direction to get past this pandemic.”

The pharmacy partnership for LTC program facilitates the vaccination of the “critical” patient population residing in LTC facilities (LTCF), while “reducing the burden” on LTCF and local health departments. The program provides end-to-end management of the COVID-19 vaccination process “at no cost to facilities.” It includes cold chain management, on-site vaccinations, and fulfillment of reporting requirements.

LTCF staff who have not received COVID-19 vaccine can also be vaccinated as part of the program.

“In order to provide as much protection as possible to our residents, contact with friends and family members has been extremely limited or non-existent,” said Johnson. “We do our best to provide opportunities for families to communicate via the phone, video conference or even through windows, but the ability of our residents to hug or hold the hand of those who are closest to them has been lost in this pandemic. All of us at RNC are looking forward to the time when friends and families can visit and hold their loved ones again.”

Walgreens will return in about 21 days to administer the second dose of the vaccine to those who got it Monday and will administer vaccines to the remaining residents and staff who elected to receive the vaccine, but didn’t receive it Monday, MVHS said.