Some long-term care facilities receive first vaccines, others wait

GRANT COUNTY — While frontline healthcare workers and first responders lined up to receive vaccines at hospitals, such as Samaritan Healthcare, long-term care facilities across the state expected to begin receiving vaccines Dec. 28 under a federal partnership with chains, such as Walgreens and CVS. But those have been delayed in some cases.

Some facilities, such as Lake Ridge Center, which saw a major coronavirus outbreak in November that infected more than 100 staff and residents and contributed to at least 17 deaths, saw its first vaccine clinic with CVS on Dec. 28, said Lori Mayer, vice president of Genesis Healthcare, which operates Lake Ridge Center and a number of other local facilities. Columbia Crest Center, also operated by Genesis Healthcare, completed its first clinic Wednesday. Follow-up clinics are expected three weeks after the first, and another three weeks after that.

Other organizations, such as Summer Wood Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Moses Lake, are still working on setting up a clinic, said Health Services Director Irene Hyde. The delays have been frustrating, said Erica Gaertner, licensed nursing home administrator at McKay Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home in Soap Lake.

Staff at McKay expected to receive the first round of vaccinations on Dec. 28, but heard nothing back at first, Gaertner said.

“When I did hear from them, they seemed slightly disorganized initially,” she said. “There was a lot of talk initially through webinars and calls, and everybody was expecting these initial vaccines would go to long-term care facilities, and then they ended up in the hospitals first. That was kind of frustrating and shocking at the same time.”

Samaritan Healthcare, equipped with the specialized freezers needed to store Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, administered the first vaccinations in Grant County on Dec. 17. While the facility was finally able to schedule its first vaccination clinic for Jan. 13, some McKay staff, including Gaertner, went to Samaritan Healthcare to get vaccinated sooner, Gaertner said.

Others at McKay plan to receive vaccinations through Columbia Basin Hospital, Gaertner said, which on Christmas Eve received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine, which does not require the same kind of ultra-cold storage as those developed by Pfizer.

As some long-term care facilities face uncertainty and delays receiving vaccinations through the federal program, Samaritan on Tuesday began offering the vaccinations to nursing homes themselves, said Gretchen Youngren, executive director of development and communications for Samaritan. Avamere at Moses Lake, a senior citizen center, initially planning on vaccinations through Walgreens, has considered taking Samaritan’s offer, said a facility representative who later said they were not authorized to speak with the press.

Even once vaccines start administration at organizations, other concerns remain, including the degree staff and residents will voluntarily get vaccinated. At Lake Ridge and Columbia Crest, there has been some hesitation among staff wary of getting the vaccine right away, and Genesis has worked to communicate to residents and their families the importance of receiving the vaccine, Mayer said.

“At this time, it is too early to quantify final acceptance rates as there are multiple clinics,” Mayer said. “Some staff members in particular are waiting until clinic number two as they want to see how their peers respond to the vaccine in round one.”

Thus far, staff and residents who have received the vaccine have only experienced mild side effects, primarily sore arms common with any vaccine, Mayer added.

“We are striving to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible at each clinic,” she said.