Home caregivers must be a priority for COVID vaccines – and tech is pivotal to transparency among entire care teams

Moderna. Pfizer. AstraZeneca. Johnson & Johnson. Here in December of the unforgettable year 2020, global pharmaceutical giants are barreling toward hopeful COVID-19 vaccines, spurred by massive government investments. 

 Programs like Operation Warp Speed in the U.S. are driving development, and efforts like COVAX at the World Health Organization are striving to ensure equitable access and distribution.  

 On that note, everyone generally agrees that people most at risk of the virus and its complications must be prioritized. One group of professionals who mustn’t fly under this radar – but are at risk of doing so – are homecare workers.  

 As reported this week in Home Health Care News, U.S. home care organizations are fighting for priority access to Phase 1 distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. These groups have issued an advocacy letter to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), calling for in-home caregivers to be among the first to receive inoculations.  

 This came in response to ACIP’s identification of priority groups – which included health care workers and residents of nursing homes, along with essential workers, older adults and those with underlying medical conditions. What it didn’t include was a specific definition of “health care workers” – a miss that is deeply consequential for home health, hospice and personal care aides, home care workers and direct support professionals whose “priority” status may be up for interpretation.  

 It is imperative for precise definitions to be in place to ensure all care workers are given front-line access in recognition of their front-line status. Vaccines are an essential tool in order for them to provide optimal client care and protect some of our community’s most vulnerable members.   

 Technology is essential for transparent distribution  

Not only do care workers deserve to be at the front of the line to receive the vaccine, they also deserve to have a seamless rollout of information sharing behind it, too. So too do those they care for. 

Indeed, once vaccines are known to be effective and available, the next step is providing transparent communication into who has received a vaccine. When it comes to the intimate bonds of a health-care team – comprising patients, families, and all providers on that team – I suspect we’ll see the need for all members to have a window into vaccinations that impact everyone.  

 In the thriving industry of home care, the bonds between care worker and patient are not only tight, but instrumental to high-quality care and client satisfaction. While many facets of virtual care have taken off this year, in-person home care continues to be important for keeping those who need such support safe.  

 Caregivers spend their days on the road, delivering both clinical and non-clinical services in homes. With the help of technology, full transparency can be achieved between client, family and care worker as to who is immunized against COVID-19. This keeps all parties safe and reduces clear avenues of stress by providing clients and caregivers with transparent COVID-19 information.  

 The right software can help provide such transparency. Home care organizations can tap their software systems to provide the shared, always-accessible, real-time information through a cloud-based system. Tech providers could create custom elements like vaccine status indicators or special risk alerts, and embed them in both employee and client profiles. Within the client or family portal, these vaccinations and health records would be clear and up-to-date for all to see, eliminating unnecessary guesswork and worry. 

 As with anything in our COVID-changed society, there are sensitivities to all of this. For example: could a caregiver refuse to provide service to a client who hasn’t been inoculated? And vice versa: could a client refuse to be seen by a caregiver who has yet to receive the shots? How will the need to receive multiple doses impact these decisions? 

Many unknowns remain. However, what we do know is that home care is being impacted without the vaccine. We’re hearing that some caregivers are refusing to go into homes and clients are avoiding care altogether because of the pandemic. It’s hard to blame them. But this, in turn, has created lasting consequences across the entire health care continuum.  

The first step in addressing this situation is to ensure all home caregivers are explicitly defined as a priority group to receive the vaccine. The second is relaying that information transparently and efficiently throughout the distribution process.  

And that’s where technology will have its day.