Coronavirus Update #218
Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibody Treatments
Friends:

Thank you for all you and your teams are doing in our continued fight against COVID-19. In our battle to stop community spread and prevent major hotspots in our sector, we must remain vigilant. I know at work you and your teams are being vigilant. Thank you. As you know, the biggest indicator of COVID-19 entering a healthcare setting is the prevalence of COVID-19 in the surrounding community. Therefore, as COVID-19 spreads in the community, it also spreads in healthcare settings. While there are outbreaks, the long-term care sector is mostly preventing bigger hotspots through testing and improved infection control practices. Today there is an outbreak of at least one COVID-19 case in about 193 of the 227 skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and in about 123 of the several hundred larger assisted living campuses in Maryland.
 
The Vaccine: Nationally over a million doses of COVID-19 Vaccine have been administered. In these early days of vaccination in Maryland Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers, many tens of thousands of first doses have been administered to Marylanders in need, and to those who care for them. Let me tell you, it was special to be there as people received their first doses last week, thank you Governor Hogan:
 
WBAL Coverage CLICK HERE
FOX45 Coverage CLICK HERE
WJZ Coverage CLICK HERE
WMAR Coverage CLICK HERE
Baltimore Sun Coverage CLICK HERE
WDVM Coverage CLICK HERE
 
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered or are in route to Maryland; critically important because it will take about one million doses to vaccinate those most in need and frontline medical staff and first responders here. The national CVS/Walgreens vaccination program will take several weeks. There will be bumps and vaccine distribution will not go perfectly, eventually everyone will get the vaccine. Now is the time to focus on appreciating this new dawn, encouraging residents, patients and staff to take the vaccine.
 
On Monoclonal Antibody Treatment: This week, we are continuing to work with the Maryland Department of Health (MDH), other associations, and our commercial pharmacy and infusion partners to get this treatment to residents and patients in our sector as clinically ordered and directed. Stay tuned for more details. Keep in touch with your Remedi contact now. 
 
As detailed information becomes available on the national monoclonal antibody treatment program we will alert you.  Please look for an article in an upcoming HFAM Sector Update. We will continue to coordinate with Remedi, Omnicare, Advanced PICC, and others in the days and weeks ahead. I realize the timing of the rollout of this treatment is not ideal to be occurring at the same time as the vaccination rollout.  In the coming weeks, success will be getting this treatment to residents and patients; failure will be having hundreds of unused doses.
 
Fit Testing: HFAM, along with LifeBridge Health conducted four days of N95 Mask Fit Test Training. Over 20 skilled nursing centers from across the state, sent team members to the hour long train-the trainer sessions. Watch your emails and HFAM’s COVID Alerts for more information and upcoming training dates.  It is a best practice for a professional with a properly fitted (and tested) mask to work the COVID positive unit.
 
As always and most important:
 
  • People first, quality counts.
  • Be prepared to deploy people and PPE around your organization.
  • Our sector MUST double our efforts on infectious disease protocol, staffing, PPE, observation, and testing.
  • Train, train, and train teams again on infectious disease protocol.
  • Recognize that COVID-19 fatigue is an issue across the county, not just in our sector.
  • Overcommunicate with residents, patients, families, staff, and government partners.
  • Sound alarms early.
  • Know that WE WILL get through this and that you are saving lives!
  • Work with your hospital partners, and coordinate with local and state regulatory partners.
  • Take and document your action; keep a timeline.
  • CLICK HERE for the Dr. Katz Video, and please see the Donning and Doffing Checklist we first distributed several months ago.
 
Onward together friends, marathon and not sprint. Keep focusing on quality. Celebrate the small wins.

Be well,
Joe DeMattos
President and CEO
Monoclonal Antibody Treatments

The SPEED portal (or the Special Projects for Equitable and Efficient Distribution) should go live this week to help allocate monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to priority populations, including nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The public portal distribution locations map is going through the final stages of approval before launching. AHCA/NCAL will provide updates when the site goes live.
 
Once live, the public portal distribution location map will provide information where providers can obtain the therapeutic mAbs. It will be accessible by clinicians, patients, and State leaders. The information displayed will include both bamlanivimab (Eli Lilly mAb) and the combination drugs casirivimab and imdevimab (commonly referred to as Regeneron) recipient locations. The portal will allow for search function to locate the mAbs based on address, zip code, and scrolling features. Contact information for the locations will be provided in the portal.
 
The mAb is being made available to nursing homes and assisted living principally through two ways:
 
Steps for connecting long term care facilities with partnering pharmacies using mAb:
  1. Reach out to your current pharmacy to see if they are participating.
  2. If they are not participating, but are interested, they should email Chad Worz (cworz@ascp.com) and include the name of the individual pharmacy, address, contact person, email address, and request initial allocation based on the pharmacy size.
  3. If the pharmacy is already an Amerisource Bergan customer, they should include their customer ID, or if not a current Amerisource Bergan customer include the pharmacy license number for the location.
  4. HHS will work to expedite a relationship between Amerisource Bergan Specialty and the pharmacy so that they receive product timely.
AHCA/NCAL #GetVaccinated Toolkit

Last week, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), launched a campaign to encourage long term care residents and staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
  
Branded collateral and informational materials have been shared with AHCA/NCAL members across the country. Using the hashtag #GetVaccinated, this campaign also seeks to raise awareness online, especially among family members of long term care residents. By encouraging their loved ones to get vaccinated, family members can play an important role in the effort to eradicate the virus from long term care settings.

AHCA/NCAL has also developed a new #GetVaccinated infection control flyer that is available here and posted on the AHCA/NCAL #GetVaccinated webpage. It is available in both English and Spanish and would be a good handout to distribute to staff at vaccination clinics.
Additionally, if you have any success stories or best practices in promoting vaccine uptake, please feel free to Abigail Barreto at ACHA/NCAL.
 
To view all the materials please visit www.ahcancal.org/getvaccinated.
Did you miss HFAM's previous alerts?

Visit our website to view all previous HFAM alerts, as well as guidance
from our federal and state partners.
Thank you.

We cannot thank you enough for the dedication and diligence in doing all that you can for the residents in your communities. HFAM continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic with our state and national partners and will do all we can to support you during this time.