Dear Family and Friends of South Cove Manor:
In yesterday’s Boston Globe, there was a long article about the poor vaccination rates in Massachusetts nursing homes for both nursing home residents, as well as nursing home staff. For those of you that subscribe to the online version for the Globe, you can
click here for access to the article.
The article indicates that the statewide vaccination rate for nursing home staff is at 59%, and provides possible reasoning for the low rates. Nursing home resident vaccination rates are currently listed as 81%, and the author of the article also talks about the difficulty that most nursing homes are having acquiring additional vaccine doses for both staff and residents. The implications of not having a solid plan in place to provide vaccines to unvaccinated new admissions, or to unvaccinated staff is also discussed, along with the obvious potential for future outbreaks.
Because of the negative tone of the Globe article, and the clearly alarming statistics shared, I wanted to set your minds at ease about vaccination rates at South Cove Manor. While the vaccination rate for nursing home staff members across Massachusetts is 59%, the vaccination rate for staff members at South Cove Manor is 90%. Clearly, the largest risk to our residents is from infected staff members, and we at South Cove have done everything we can to mitigate that risk. In fact, the Globe article mentions statewide distribution of educational videos in multiple languages, including Chinese. The video that has been distributed in Chinese was created at South Cove by our staff, and features our medical director, Dr. Robert Wu, sharing his thoughts on the importance of staff members receiving the vaccine. As you can see, our efforts to bring an end to this pandemic has reached far beyond our building on Washington Street.
In addition to our successful education efforts with staff, South Cove Manor has also done a tremendous job in educating residents and families about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. While the statewide rate of vaccinated nursing home residents is currently at 81%, South Cove Manor has vaccinated 97% of our current resident population.
Lastly, the Globe article speaks to the difficulty that many long-term care organizations are having in acquiring vaccine doses. As you can see from our numbers above, South Cove has not experienced those issues. Our pharmacy partner, Tai Tung pharmacy, has been incredibly responsive to our needs and has been able to provide us with doses of vaccine for all residents and staff that wish to receive it.
I hope that this letter serves to ease your minds somewhat about the safety of your loved ones that reside at South Cove. We are all incredibly proud of the work that we have done over the past 15 months to keep all members of the South Cove Manor family safe from this virus, and we look forward to the future with hope of a continued return to normalcy. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Li Chen or I with any questions or concerns.
Thank you again for placing your trust in South Cove Manor.
