Sedgwick County nursing homes have long way to go to fully vaccinate staff, data show

A renewed push from President Joe Biden’s administration that will soon require long-term care staff to be vaccinated against COVID is meeting some resistance locally.

Only one nursing home in Sedgwick County meets the state’s goal of having 90% of its staff vaccinated against COVID-19, according to state and federal data tracking the rates of vaccination ahead of a federal vaccine mandate for long-term care workers.

Twenty federally-licensed homes in the county — more than half — have a staff vaccination rate at or above 50%.

“The importance of vaccinations for individuals who work with the older population so profoundly impacted by COVID-19 can’t be overstated as the decision to get vaccinated can not only protect their health, but the health of their colleagues, patients and their families, and the communities they serve,” Laura Howard, secretary of the state Department for Aging and Disability Services, said in a statement.

Workers in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities were among the first of the U.S. population eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine last winter. In Kansas, health care workers broadly were included in phase one of the state’s vaccination plan.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began to publicly publish data including health care worker vaccination rates in nursing homes. The CMS shares data reported weekly by nursing homes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The government tracks and publishes the data to help protect nursing home residents, who have been among the most vulnerable to death and hospitalization from COVID-19 ever since the pandemic hit.

More than 134,000 nursing home residents and 1,980 staff have died from COVID-19 across the country, according to the federal data. That includes at least 1,170 nursing home residents who have died in Kansas.

Kansas launched its own online dashboard tracking staff vaccination, using the data from the CMS and CDC, on Friday. It tracks vaccination rates for the state’s federally-licensed long-term care facilities, with a goal of reaching 90% staff vaccination at all homes.

“We know that vaccinations are the most effective way to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19,” physician Lee Norman, state health department secretary, said in a statement. “This dashboard helps to highlight CMS facilities in the state as they work to vaccinate their employees to protect the important population they serve.”

The state shared the information in anticipation of a new federal regulation from Biden’s administration that will soon require staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 if the nursing home participates in federal Medicare and Medicaid.

The administration expects to release formal rules for a staff vaccine mandate in September. Some Kansas advocates for long-term care residents have expressed concerns that the federal mandate will lead to even worse staff shortages in nursing homes.

The state’s data dashboard was last updated on Friday and will be updated every Friday afternoon moving forward. It shows staff who have completed vaccination, meaning workers have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, and one dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

As of Monday morning, 45.5% of Kansans were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, state data show. That contrasts with 86.7% of residents in Kansas long-term care facilities who have completed their COVID-19 vaccinations.

Wichita area vaccination data

The Sedgwick County nursing home with the lowest percentage of health care workers vaccinated is the Wichita Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, with just 21% of its staff completely vaccinated.

That’s far below the national and statewide percentages for nursing home staff vaccination rates: 61.1% and 58.1%, respectively.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Sedgwick County nursing home with the highest percentage of its health care workers vaccinated is Medicalodges Wichita, beating many other homes with 95% of its staff fully vaccinated.

It’s the only home in Sedgwick County that meets or exceeds the state’s goal of having 90% of staff at each nursing home fully vaccinated.

The Sedgwick County home with the second best percentage is Sandpiper Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, with 85% of its health care workers fully vaccinated.

The table below shows all the health care worker vaccination rates at federally-licensed nursing homes throughout Sedgwick County, according to the state’s data dashboard.

See the full data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services online. You can filter the tables by county to see data for areas outside of Sedgwick County.

This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 12:00 AM.

Megan Stringer

The Wichita Eagle

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Megan Stringer reports for The Wichita Eagle, where she focuses on issues facing the working class, labor and employment. She joined The Eagle in June 2020 as a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Previously, Stringer covered business and economic development for the USA Today Network-Wisconsin, where her award-winning stories touched on everything from retail to manufacturing and health care.