CVS Health will begin vaccinating residents and staff at 415 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Tennessee next week as part of the drug-store chain's plans to administer COVID-19 vaccines at more than 40,000 long-term care facilities across the country.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services selected CVS Health and Walgreens as providers to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to the elderly and staff in long-term care facilities. Such persons are among the first to get the vaccines because of the higher risks from the coronavirus for such persons.
The vaccine will be free of charge and available for residents in all long-term care settings, including about 15,000 skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes and 35,000 assisted living facilities, residential care homes and adult family homes.
Troy Brennan, executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health, said retail pharmacies will be the foundation for distributing the vaccines "because we are convenient and located most everywhere so we have the best chance of reaching the public."
"Our army of healthcare professionals - pharmacists, nurses and licensed pharmacy technicians - are very familiar with this patient population," he said.
On Monday, CVS began administering the first of two Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19 at nursing homes and senior facilities in a few states and the nationwide rollout will begin on December 28th.
Most facilities are not requiring the staff or the residents to get the vaccine, but they are strongly recommending it. To be effective as quickly as possible, medical experts say most people will need to be vaccinated.
"Everybody in this country wants to return to normal life," Brennan said. "The fastest way for us to do that is for everybody to get vaccinated. The speed and people's willingness to be vaccinated is going to be very important."
Jocelyn Shrum, a CVS Pharmacist based in Nashville, is busy this week hiring and training many of the 20,000 workers that CVS is adding to help administer the COVID-19 vaccines. She said the initial response and interest in the vaccines "has been great.
"Everyone is very, very excited about getting the vaccine and I actually haven't had anyone who hasn't wanted to get it so far," she said. "We're working as much as we can to get our staff ready and equipped, but it's gratifying to see so many people wanting to come back or do some part-time work to help end this pandemic. It's just great to be a part of helping to serve these vulnerable people and to help bring an end to this pandemic."
Schrum said at most of the nursing homes and assisted living centers, CVS staff will be there for about 4 to 6 hours administering the first round of the vaccines. They will return to the centers for the next round of vaccines next month.
CVS will be the primary provider of vaccines at the 208 facilities owned and operated by the Cleveland, Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America, the nation's biggest privately owned nursing home chain.
CVS also an agreement with the HHS to eventually provide vaccines to the general public in our 10,000 CVS Pharmacy locations across the country in 2021.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.