George Regional Health System to Administer the COVID-19 Vaccine to Three Area Nursing Homes
Nursing homes across the country had the task of choosing which Pharmacy partner would be responsible for administering the COVID-19 vaccine to its staff and residents. George Regional Health & Rehab and Smith Manor in Lucedale and Greene County Health & Rehab in Leakesville all selected to partner with George Regional Health System Pharmacy. Those facilities will be receiving their vaccines from George Regional Health System caregivers on Tuesday, December 29th.
The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care program, a federal initiative, was designed to help facilitate the administration of the vaccines to long term care facilities. “We registered our Pharmacy with the federal program as soon as it was available,” Greg Havard, CEO, George Regional Health System explains. “We knew we had to move as quickly as possible since rural areas would have more difficulty securing the vaccines. We made sure to reach out to all the long term care sites in our counties and asked them to partner with us; some accepted that request. We wanted these vaccines to go where they would have the biggest impact. We knew by combining our numbers we would have the best chance at receiving vaccines as soon as possible.”
“Our healthcare staff was vaccinated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last week,” Havard adds. “Vaccinating nursing home staff and residents is the next step in the vaccine process as outlined by the CDC.”
“As we receive more vaccines over the coming months, vaccinations will be expanded to other groups such as essential workers and high-risk groups. We have already started reaching out to other healthcare workers in the area and have ordered vaccine doses for those groups. To date, we have no timeline of when those vaccines may be delivered. Our end goal is to get vaccines to everyone who wants one!”