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CVS Pharmacists Begin Vaccinating San Diego County Nursing Home Residents

 December 28, 2020 at 10:13 AM PST

Speaker 1: 00:00 COVID-19 vaccinations and San Diego nursing homes are expected to increase this week with the introduction of teams from CVS and Walgreens pharmacies. The two retail pharmacy companies were chosen by the Trump administration to administer vaccinations in long-term care facilities, and eventually provide vaccinations to the general public. For this huge undertaking. CVS is looking to add more than 100 pharmacists and technicians to its staff in San Diego. Joining me is Lisa Collagian. She is a licensed pharmacist and district leader for CVS health. Lisa, welcome to the Speaker 2: 00:39 Thank you. Thank you for having me. How are you? Speaker 1: 00:42 Is CVS coordinating with local nursing homes to set up the vaccination? Speaker 2: 00:49 So actually back in October, the CDC sent out a survey to all long-term care facilities nationwide to survey them, to decide if they wanted to opt in and have CVS or Walgreens come onsite and provide the vaccine. So a lot of this work has been happening since October behind the scenes. We have 40,000 long-term care facilities that have agreed to opt in with CVS 15,000 of which are in California. So, um, there is a timeline scheduled and all of that has been going on with CDC in partnership. Can they still apply now? Absolutely. Our goal is to get as many vaccinated as possible. Um, they would contact CVS directly and create that contract. Do you know Speaker 1: 01:34 Vaccine the CVS teams will have, would that be Pfizer or Speaker 2: 01:39 It's a great question. It's actually state specific. I can just speak on per you know, on behalf of California, we are now moving forward with the Pfizer vaccine. As of this morning, Speaker 1: 01:50 CDC makes that decision then w what, what vaccine that you, you get, what vaccine, each state Speaker 2: 01:58 It's state specific. So it would be a partnership with the state and the CDC. Well, there'd be Speaker 1: 02:03 Charge to the residents who received the vaccination. Speaker 2: 02:07 The vaccine will not have a charge for any of those who will be vaccinated with it. It's actually going to be initially reimbursed with the federal government, after which behind the scenes reimbursement would, would occur with private insurances. And for those who are not insured, the HRS would step in and provide the reimbursement for it. And how Speaker 1: 02:27 Will the vaccine be transported and administered at the longterm care facility? Speaker 2: 02:33 That's a great question. So five out of the six vaccines that are going to be coming out are standard refrigerator and freezer types of temperatures. Pfizer is a little bit more complicated. It is on dry ice. The packaging that is arriving right now is actually phenomenal. It has its own temperature screening inside the box when it arrives, there's constant temperature readings and dry ice will be utilized in order to it at the right temperatures. And it will be transported with that same temperature monitoring device with dry eyes to the long-term care facilities. Speaker 1: 03:07 Do you know how many, uh, long-term care facilities in San Diego have signed up already? Speaker 2: 03:13 I don't have the numbers for County specifically just 15,000 in the state of California. And we're expecting to vaccinate 700,000 long-term care residents and facility members in the next 12 weeks. Speaker 1: 03:26 Now it was reported over the weekend that there are currently a hundred cases of COVID-19 at one Escondido nursing home. So for many in these care facilities, vaccinations cannot come soon enough. When would you expect to start seeing a reduction in COVID infections at nursing homes here? Speaker 2: 03:46 That's a great question. And the sooner we get into that nursing home, the sooner we expect to see that reduction today was our go live date in California. So on behalf of the company, we're very excited and eager to help bring normalcy back, allow for the longterm care residents to really feel what it's like to go back to, um, you know, being able to hug and touch and see relatives. So today is our first day inside the long-term care facilities and the sooner we're in them, the sooner we'll be able to get back to normalcy and have humanity restored. Speaker 1: 04:16 And will you also be administering a second vaccination to the residents in 21 days? Speaker 2: 04:21 That's correct. So actually we will be visiting each long-term care facility three times. The first one would be for the initial dose. The second visit would be three to four weeks apart, depending on the vaccine. And then the third visit would be for anyone that actually received the initial dose during our second visit. So perhaps somebody joined the long-term care facility a little later, or weren't feeling well on their first visit. So we will make sure to hit each one, three times to ensure that everyone has been vaccinated appropriately with both of the vaccinations, the initial and the booster. Speaker 1: 04:56 You have any estimate on how long it may take to get all long-term care patients in San Diego vaccine. Speaker 2: 05:03 I actually don't have those numbers. The sooner each, um, long-term care facility is contracted. The sooner we can move along with making sure that every resident who wants to receive the vaccine has been given that opportunity. Speaker 1: 05:16 The CDC says the next groups of people to get vaccinated will be workers in essential and critical industries and people at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions, will CVS be involved in those vaccine program? Speaker 2: 05:35 Absolutely. So CVS has been contracted with the United States department of health and human services to be one of the official COVID-19 vaccination program providers. So initially, yes, we are going to the long-term care facilities. After that we have plans to then move past to the next phase and eventually to the general public granted dissipating, March, April. Um, of course that timeline is fluid, but there is a phase approach and CVS is definitely on board to help with that. Speaker 1: 06:04 What are you expecting to start in March or April? Can you tell me that again, Speaker 2: 06:08 The vaccination to the general public? So, Speaker 1: 06:11 So, okay. So in, in, uh, pretty much early spring, Speaker 2: 06:15 That is the anticipated, but again, that timeline is fluid. Speaker 1: 06:18 Will that work, will it be like getting a flu shot or will you have to make an appointment? Speaker 2: 06:23 You will have to make an appointment. So initially you'll make your first appointment after which it will prompt you to make your second follow-up appointment in the appropriate timeline. And that can be done online. We're also going to be leveraging our social media online platforms, as well as reaching out to our 30 million extra care loyalty members and 90 million of our patients who are already signed up for text alerts. So those are the platforms that we will be utilizing when we are ready for general vaccinations. Speaker 1: 06:53 And as I mentioned, it's been noted that CVS is looking to add more pharmacists and technicians because of this large undertaking of, of all these vaccinations. How has that hiring going? I mean, are there pharmacists who just waiting to be hired? Speaker 2: 07:09 Absolutely. So we are excited to be able to provide this to pharmacists or pharmacy entrance and technicians based on each state's regulations. We are anticipating 30,000 pharmacists onboard and 60,000 technicians to provide for the vaccinations. And yes, absolutely. We are open. We are hiring, we've got a whole team out there recruiting. And I think at this point as a pharmacist, our goal is to be involved as much as we can. So if we weren't a CVS pharmacist prior to, and we know we have those who are reaching out and saying, I want to be part of this and are interviewing and actually becoming part of the COVID vaccine program for our company. So we're very excited to provide for that. Speaker 1: 07:49 I've been speaking with Lisa, Collagian a licensed pharmacist and district leader for CVS health. Lisa, thank you. And thank you for all that good information. Speaker 2: 07:57 Thank you as well.

The drugstore chain did not provide specific numbers for San Diego, but company officials said 15,000 care facilities in California are part of a nationwide program that will administer vaccines to as many as 700,000 long term care residents in the coming months.
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