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The Walgreens pharmacy chain will begin vaccinating COVID-19 to older adults who are in extended care centers across the island, as well as their staff, during the first week of January 2021.
Meanwhile, tomorrow will begin the process of calls to the 1,100 households that have the responsibility to attend, for the coordination of documents and dates.
He confirmed this in an interview with The New Day graduate Eileen Ortega, Puerto Rico’s director of operations for Walgreens. “First you have to contact each center to receive in coordination all the necessary documentation of residents and staff, and establish and coordinate the first vaccination dates”, he said.
By adding up the number of older adults, health professionals and staff providing services at long-term care centers, Walgreens plans to vaccinate up to 50,000 people. The chain will receive the supply of doses in two deliveries divided into 50% directly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the vaccines will be stored on their farms across the island , explained Ortega. The order in which the centers are visited depending on the incidence of infections in the municipality or region and the number of residents and staff.
“This is a process that has been planned for a long time,” the license said.
Dr. Iris Cardona, Undersecretary of Health, indicated that meetings for planning began in August, but it was not until last Thursday that the CDC gave the go-ahead for the activation of the plan, once the food administration evaluated committee. and Drugs (FDA) endorsed the vaccine. The CDC set a two-week period for Walgreens to make coordination calls. Those calls to each center will begin tomorrow, Thursday, Ortega confirmed.
“Our designated staff will be communicating with the centers, they do not have to call pharmacies or make appointments. There is a pharmacy staff assigned to this only. ”, said the spokeswoman. The chain indicated that it has more than 300 pharmacists across the island who will be in charge of vaccine administration and patient guidance at the centers, as well as pharmacy technicians who will support in the calls.
“We will contact them all, but we are talking about 1,100 centers, the goal is that no center is left without receiving COVID vaccines for residents and employees”, he stressed.
This process also applies to CVS thank-you chains, also selected by the CDC for the administration of vaccines in such long-term care institutions. At the close of this edition, CVS had not responded to a request for an interview to clarify details of its operation.. Salut explained that, by adding the aegis across the island, both chains would be in charge of administering the vaccine in about 1,600 institutions.
Centers call for better communication
The president of the Association of Owners of Long-Term Care Centers, Juanita Aponte, expressed in this medium the latent concern among those in charge of institutional diction, by planting on the one hand a lack of communication from both pharmacy chains as of the Department of Health in relation to the specific processes for the vaccination of its residents and staff.
Similarly, he expressed dissatisfaction with health professionals working in these centers will not be vaccinated at the same time as those working in hospitals and other primary health centers.
“We expected it to be on par”, raised Aponte.
The president will argue that health professionals and employees were not separated from the centers, given the high risk of complications and death among older adults in these homes, and that the entry and exit of employees is a factor in risk of infection.
“They are the ones who come in and provide the direct service to our residents. If they (Walgreens and CVS) could not come home immediately, they would have included (their staff) to be taken to hospitals where they were vacant and out of wedlock. ”, he stated.
The Undersecretary of Health indicated that the selection of the vaccination order within the first and subsequent phases did not crash into the hands of the state entity, but the CDC was the entity that established it.
“I understand the concern, but they are processes, the system is established, it is not a decision that I make, it is a decision that the federal government took,” Cardona reiterated.
“This is a process that has to be carried out in an orderly manner, we have more than 1,000 long-term care facilities, if you add the aegis they are 1,600. Each of these institutions is going to be visited and they vaccinated the people who live there already the people who care for them. The start process, take the start button “, stressed the Undersecretary, an expert in vaccination processes.
It was not until yesterday, on the other hand, that Walgreens had communication with the Association regarding vaccination processes, Aponte said. Saludar also officially communicated yesterday with the Association, through a letter, signed by Dr. Ángel Rivera, director of the Vaccination Program. “We would like to inform you that the Walgreens and CVS pharmacies in Puerto Rico will officially offer you the COVID-19 vaccination service to their patients and employees,” the document reads.
“The process has not gone as we expected,” said the presidency of the Association. “We have a stretch to improve so that communication flows better. We are still not 100% pleased with how the process is going. “