COVID death rates are way down. Now comes the hard part, reports McKnight’s Long Term Care News.
Start preparations for Phase 2 of the vaccination program. So urged Marquis Companies and Consonus Healthcare President and CEO Phil Fogg Jr., the featured speaker at a popular McKnight’s webinar Thursday. (It can still be viewed in archive — just head to the registration page.)
Make sure your local pharmacy partner is properly applying for state and federal approvals. Develop your workflow capabilities now. The county might tell you one thing about visitations, but the state and feds might not agree, so you need to be ready to pounce on opportunity when unified progress occurs.
Plot your future screening processes. How will rapid testing be a part of the strategy? Will you offer vaccinations to a broadening net of family members to help the overall cause? When? How?
Because you will continually be welcoming new workers and residents, these are not once-and-done considerations.
At some point, you need to consider what level of risk you will settle on, Fogg emphasized. After all, when restrictions are eased — and make no mistake, they will be eventually — you might be willing to shoulder greater uncertainty if it means reuniting residents with their families quicker.
You also could be more willing if it means finally giving families and residents answers to pained questions that have been forming all these many long months.