North Texas long-term care facilities working on plan to get residents, staff COVID-19 booster shot

DALLAS - With booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine set to start rolling out in about a month, facilities, like nursing homes and long-term care facilities, are already making plans on how to get those boosters to residents and staff.

Those in nursing homes and long-term care facilities were among the earlier groups to get the COVID-19 vaccine last winter, and will now be some of the first eligible for booster doses.

"We started planning several weeks ago in anticipation of a booster," said Sheri Easton-Garrett, with Belmont Village Senior Living.

Booster doses for the general public aren’t set to roll out until the week of September 20, but Belmont Village Senior Living Turtle Creek is already making preparations. 

The staff has a database of vaccination dates from the first two doses and its pharmacy provider is on standby.

"Eight months from the second dose, we already are able to sort down and project at eight months, let's say the week of September the 20th, these are the individuals [getting the booster shot]," Easton-Garrett explained.

Federal health officials plan to ship some doses directly to long-term care facilities. 

Others, like Belmont Village, are working with pharmacy providers to host vaccine clinics on site.

"Our goal is to be able to start the week that the FDA approves the release to start," Easton-Garrett said. "We want to be able to hit the ground that exact week."

President Joe Biden is also mandating vaccinations for nursing home employees who serve residents on Medicare or Medicaid. 

Belmont Village already has a vaccine mandate in place, though other facilities are concerned about losing staff. 

"We did a survey of our members and 70% feared losing staff if they mandated the vaccine," said George Linial, president/CEO of LeadingAge Texas.

LeadingAge Texas represents non-profit organizations that include nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Linial said the majority of its members are already short-staffed, unable to hire enough certified nursing assistants or nurses.

"We've had a number of facilities that have had to restrict admissions because they don't have enough staff to take care of people," he said.

And Linial fears vaccine mandates may cause employees to move on to other jobs. 

"It affects bottom lines. It affects the ability to serve people in need. So we would like to see if there's going to be a vaccine mandate, that it's expanded beyond just nursing facilities," Linial added.

Providers are still waiting on guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services before moving forward, and say it may still take some time for other facilities to roll out their booster plan.