SWFL nursing home residents, staff prepare for vaccine

Nursing homes are next in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine after hospital workers have received the first round. What is it like for these facilities that spent much of the pandemic in lockdown to be so close to preventative treatment?

The distribution is going to take a few weeks, as the vaccine will not only be going to the homes’ residents, but all of their staff.

Mary Franklin, executive director of Cypress Cove in Fort Myers, explained the process they went through to get to this point. First, the home applied to receive the vaccine, then it was paired with a pharmacy—Walgreens, in this case.

Walgreens got in touch with the nursing home and sent informational videos on the vaccine, as well as paperwork to prepare. Everyone at Cypress Cove knows, though, that even once the patients and staff are vaccinated, it will take some time to return to normalcy.

“We aren’t expecting things to get right back to normal as soon as everyone or a majority of our residents and employees are vaccinated,” Franklin said. We are going to be looking to AHCA [Agency for Health Care Administration] for that guidance and the Department of Health to let us know, what are the next steps? We will be following those guidelines, they are the experts.”

Cypress Cove says it has about 400 people who will get vaccinated. It is not required, but rather suggested that everyone there does.

“Our residents and family members are relieved, and are looking forward to receiving a vaccine,” Franklin said. “But of course they want to do the research and make sure that they are comfortable in receiving the vaccine. So we’re giving that information to them as much as we can, and we’re sharing that information with them. And they, too, are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”