Residents of long-term care facilities are falling further behind in their COVID-19 vaccinations — with the gap being driven by a combination of logistical challenges and increasing skepticism from the residents’ themselves, sector experts say.
Only 31% of nursing home residents are currently up-to-date on their vaccinations, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In contrast, nearly 95% of all Americans aged 65 and over were vaccinated with the initial two-shot dose.
The declining vaccination rates in nursing homes coincided with a 30% spike in COVID cases in the early weeks of June.
Clinical experts note that older Americans are not alone in feeling a reduced sense of urgency to stay current with their vaccinations.
“The long-term care population is a microcosm of what’s happening across the country, and unfortunately, COVID vaccine reluctance remains persistent throughout the general public,” David Gifford, MD, chief medical officer at the American Health Care Association, told NPR. “It’s our most significant challenge.”
Lagging rates are also being driven by layers of red tape added after the federal government stopped paying for Americans’ COVID vaccinations. While vaccinations typically remain free for older adults, needing to go through their individual insurance providers has added complications to a previously streamlined process.
Staff vaccination rates are even lower — only about 10%, according to the CDC. Staff are typically less vulnerable to COVID than residents, but total staff cases have remained roughly equal to resident cases since the pandemic began in 2020
Some providers — such as The Good Samaritan Society in South Dakota — have seen greater success by leveraging patients’ individual relationships with their doctors and providers. Jeremy Cauwels, MD, chief physician at Sanford Health told McKnight’s earlier this year that those relationships are often key to breaking through misinformation and reluctance.
But long-term care provider critics claim that these outliers do not offset an overall failure to educate nursing home residents about the importance of staying up-to-date on COVID vaccines, NPR reported. They also claim it’s representative of larger quality of care struggles in the sector.
Consumer advocates have blamed those struggles on employee retention woes and substandard care. Provider leaders have defended themselves by noting that their available funding is heavily reliant on reimbursement rates that are dictated by state and federal governments and agencies.
