In some good news for home care providers, staff – including caregivers – seem to have widespread access to the COVID-19 vaccination. In fact, several states have explicitly recognized home care workers as eligible for early vaccines.
In a survey of 100 home care providers, more than three-quarters say they have staff who have received at least a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Most have gotten shots through external vaccination sites, while 17% report their organization is doing in-house vaccines.
Consistent with other settings, home care providers are dealing with vaccine hesitancy among their workers. In the same survey of 100 home care companies, just 10% say they have experienced universal willingness of staff to get vaccinated. About three-quarters say that most of their workers are willing to get vaccinated.
However, the workers who say they won’t get the vaccine or are unsure are causing concerns, and providers fear that clients will refuse to work with unvaccinated caregivers. An industrywide “Be Wise, Immunize” campaign has been created to encourage vaccination acceptance.
