The New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued Guidance for Hospitals Vaccinating Long Term Care Patients Before Discharge to a Long Term Care Facility (attached). The guidance reinforces that Article 28 general hospitals are required to offer COVID-19 vaccine to medically eligible consenting patients prior to discharge to a nursing home or other long term care facility. Hospitals should offer the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine to such patients if it is available and provided that the patient consents and is determined to be clinically appropriate for such vaccine. Hospitals must provide nursing homes with clear documentation of the patients’ vaccination status as applicable – including but not limited to the specific vaccine administered, what date, whether the nursing home needs to administer a second dose, and if so, the timeframe for that second dose.
GNYHA has stressed for DOH that while hospitals support this vaccination policy, operationalizing it with a two-dose vaccine will be challenging. A regular allocation of a single-dose vaccine—like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine—will be critical to ensuring full vaccination of nursing home-bound patients.
For a compilation of recent guidance, please visit GNYHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination Guidance webpage.