Who can get Kansas City’s first COVID vaccines? The group is larger than you’d expect
Some senior living communities in the Kansas City area this week began telling residents and staff they will be among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it arrives — and that might include residents of independent living centers as well as nursing homes.
Brookdale Senior Living and Midwest Health Inc. have announced plans to work with CVS and Walgreens to get vaccinations to residents of their independent living facilities as well as skilled nursing, assisted living and memory care units.
“Our managed facilities started receiving initial communications from Walgreens and CVS last week,” Jim Klausman, Midwest Health CEO, said in a statement Wednesday. “Several weeks ago, communities started this process by registering and now the facilities are submitting the number of vaccinations needed at each community.
“The next step will be confirming the vaccination clinic date and time.”
Both companies said they will begin scheduling vaccines as soon as they are approved and arrive.
Pfizer’s vaccine — given in two doses — was given the green light Thursday by an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA’s full approval was expected soon after. Health officials with both Missouri and Kansas have said the vaccine should arrive within days.
Who gets vaccinated first is a question that federal, state and local health officials have spent months figuring out. Vaccination distribution plans proposed by both Kansas and Missouri place health care workers in the first phase.
Hospitals expect to receive doses within days and are each working out plans for which employees will be vaccinated first.
In Kansas, the first phase is expansive. It also includes residents of long-term care facilities, people age 65 or older and people at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, including those with underlying medical conditions such as cancer, heart conditions, obesity and chronic kidney disease.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has said an estimated 75,000 Kansans will be vaccinated by the end of the month with vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
Missouri also includes residents of long-term care facilities in its first phase. Randall Williams, the state’s director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said last week the state has secured commitments for roughly 339,000 vaccine doses this month, enough to cover all residents and staff at those facilities.
In Kansas, independent living residents who are part of a continuing care community would be considered long-term care residents eligible for the initial vaccines, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.
Midwest Health registered residents of their independent living communities with the pharmacies they’re working with, “but whether or not those residents will be included in (the first) phase or vaccinated at a later date remains to be seen,” said Ali Ellis, marketing director of the Topeka-based company.
Nearly 2,500 seniors and 2,500 employees live and work in facilities managed by Midwest Health, the company said. In the Kansas City area, the company manages Homestead locations in Johnson County, Bloom Living in Olathe and the Fairways of Ironhorse in Leawood, among others.
Brookdale manages 700 communities nationwide, including about a dozen skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living, memory care and retirement communities in the Kansas City area.
In a video posted on the company’s website, Brookdale officials said residents living in all levels of care, including independent living, would receive the vaccination. The company has partnered with CVS, which will set up COVID-19 vaccination clinics similar to flu shot clinics, company officials said.
“Given the nature of the population we serve, we believe this is a vital initiative, and are grateful that the government is prioritizing senior living in the distribution of vaccines,” Cindy Baier, president and chief executive officer of Brookdale Senior Living, said in a statement.
Both companies emphasized that pandemic safety measures and precautions at all their locations remain in place. Klausman said Midwest Health hasn’t decided yet how COVID-19 vaccinations will affect restricted visitation rules in place since March.
“First, we have to get seniors vaccinated,” he said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 4:54 PM.
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