Providers Prepare for Hurdles as Vaccine Reaches Senior Facilities

Leading the rollout

In an article published by Senior Housing News, Consonus Pharmacy is deemed a leader in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and helping the lifesaving vaccine reach senior living communities.

While many senior living providers chose to work with pharmacy providers Walgreens or CVS under the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, others chose to spearhead the effort themselves.

One example of that is Marquis, which put Consonus in charge of vaccine administration at its 23 senior care facilities across the country. In addition to servicing Marquis’ communities, the company also provides services to hundreds of skilled nursing and senior living communities in eight states.

Marquis had planned for the rollout weeks ahead of time by building an electronic system to collect, analyze and export vaccine-related data.

Consonus first began administering the Covid-19 vaccine to residents and associates last month. The initial rollout involved a fleet of 15 motorhomes staffed to oversee vaccine administration and paperwork. To help ensure a smooth process, Marquis and Consonus are deputizing community nurses to serve as vaccine administrators for the clinics, according to Marquis CEO Phil Fogg, Jr.

“We’ll manage the logistics of the vaccine, we’ll get it to your facility, we will reconstitute it … but you bring the nurses to go in and actually administer the vaccine in the facilities,” Fogg said. “Not having to hire thousands of vaccine administrators or nurses is what enabled us, I think, to be able to get into those buildings faster and to do more.”

So far, the long-term care pharmacy has held clinics at 194 facilities and delivered shots to more than 8,000 staff and residents. The company is on track to complete all of its first vaccination clinics — including those at communities outside the Marquis umbrella — by Sunday, with round two beginning the next day.

“We get it done, fast,” Fogg said. “And it enables us to have a larger capacity or bandwidth because of the ability to get it done quickly.”

 

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