Bastrop County nursing homes, assisted living centers receive COVID-19 vaccine

Residents and workers in at least two nursing homes in Bastrop County have begun to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, officials said.

About 65% of residents and staff at the Silver Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Bastrop, and 60% of residents and staff at the Elgin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Elgin have received the vaccine, according to Brooke Ladner, a spokesperson with Regency Integrated Health Services, which owns the facilities.

“Each individual must provide consent before receiving the inoculation,” Ladner said. “If a resident is unable to consent for themselves, a family member or a responsible party can provide consent for them.”

Regency Integrated Health Services owns four of the five nursing homes and assisted living centers in the county — the Silver Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the Lost Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Bastrop, the Elgin Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Elgin and the Towers Nursing Home in Smithville.

Ladner said vaccinations for residents and staff at the Lost Pines and Towers facilities are scheduled to begin Monday.

Nursing homes and assisted living centers in Bastrop County aren’t directly provided the vaccine to give to their residents and workers. The facilities must team up with an approved provider to inoculate their residents and staff.

In early December, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas would participate in a federal program to help deliver COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff at long-term care facilities. The program, run through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is called the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program.

“Individual nursing homes and care centers do not receive the vaccine directly,” Ladner said. “Instead national pharmacies receive the vaccines and coordinate with local facilities to set vaccination administration dates.”

More than 1,200 nursing facilities and 2,000 long-term care facilities across Texas signed up for the federal program, and Ladner confirmed that Regency's facilities in Bastrop County are participating.

According to the CDC, the program aims to provide “end-to-end management of the COVID-19 vaccination process, including cold chain management, on-site vaccinations and fulfillment of reporting requirements.”

Ladner said Regency's facilities in Bastrop County are coordinating local CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to receive the COVID-19 vaccine through the federal program.

The other nursing home and assisted living center in Bastrop County, New Haven Assisted Living and Memory Care in Bastrop, couldn’t be reached for comment.

According to U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data dated from the end of December, 497,693 nursing home residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those, 97,106 residents have died.

The data also shows 425,357 nursing home workers have tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,292 staff members have died from the disease.

At the Lost Pines facility, the data shows 20 residents have tested positive for the virus, 11 residents were suspected of having it, and one resident has died from COVID-19.

At the Silver Pines facility, the data shows 42 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, with no residents suspected of having it, and no deaths from the disease.

At the Towers facility, the data shows one resident has tested positive for COVID-19, one resident was suspected of having the disease, and no residents have died from COVID-19.

At the Elgin facility, the data shows 36 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, 37 residents were suspected of having the disease, and six residents have died from the virus.

No data is listed for the New Haven facility.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bastrop County nursing homes, assisted living centers receive COVID-19 vaccine

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