The LTC Innovation Blog

Pharmacists play a crucial role in healthcare by ensuring that patients receive the right medications and healthcare services. In recent times, the importance of vaccination services has surged, with COVID-19, seasonal flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) posing significant threats. In this blog post, we'll explore the key aspects of these vaccines and the opportunities for pharmacists to provide vaccination services to patients in long-term care (LTC) settings.

COVID-19 has introduced several new challenges and opportunities for pharmacists, particularly those specializing in long-term care. Now that we’re well into the vaccination stage—millions of doses have been administered in long-term care facilities—there is much to learn regarding vaccine management systems and best practices for pharmacies.

Pharmacies assisting with the COVID-19 vaccination effort face evolving and complex demands around administration, storage and handling, reporting, and record-keeping. The process has introduced many new requirements for long-term care, such as capturing additional data fields for each patient and new and specific reporting requirements to the state.

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is the coordinated effort between a number of federal agencies to accelerate the research, discovery, and production of a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19. Among these are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Department of Defense.