Juniper has entered into a contract with CVS, which requires all residents and employees to complete three-fold consent forms prior to inclusion. Where written consent cannot be obtained directly, it may be replaced by independently verified verbal consent. Requirements are similar to Walgreens.
For residents with memory problems, two Juniper nurses will reach out to the phone to whoever has decision-making authority. “One asks questions and gets verbal permission; the other will be a witness, ”said Lynne Katzmann, Juniper founder and chief executive. Separately, emails, pre-recorded blog posts and voice messages about the vaccines have been sent out to Juniper residents and employees, starting in late November.
The key message is “we’ve done this before, not at this scale, never mind, and not at this import level, but we get the flu vaccine every year,” he said. Katzmann, who is set to become Juniper ‘s first employee to receive the Pfizer Vaccine when he arrives in New Jersey.
At Genesis Healthcare, the key messages are “these vaccines have been thoroughly studied, tens of thousands of people have already been vaccinated, they are very, very effective, and no steps have been taken in the process scientific, ”said Dr Richard Feifer, executive vice president and chief medical officer. Genesis, the largest long-term care company in the country, operates more than 380 nursing homes and assists with residences in 26 states, with approximately 45,000 employees and more than 30,000 residents.
Medical directors at each Genesis facility have been recording video conferences with families, residents and employees in the past few weeks to address concerns. They have also distributed a letter and question and answer document prepared by the Society for Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, as well as accessing information through closed-circuit TV channels and social media.
In partnership with Brown University researchers, the company monitors daily the side effects that long-term care residents experience after receiving coronavirus vaccines. Most reactions are expected to be moderate to severe and resolve within a few days. They include muscle weakness, pain at the injection site, headache, body aches, fever and, very rarely, allergic reactions.