Late afternoon Friday, October 16, 2020, NHSN/CDC sent the following letter to NHSN LTCF Users:
Dear NHSN Long-term Care Facility Users,
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 through National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). An alert has been incorporated into the NHSN LTC COVID-19 module to guide users to the form.
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.
The form 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.
The document beneath the strategy hyperlink in the 1st paragraph is 57 pages in length so be sure to download that and review with your team. Attached to the notification letter are 2 documents: