photo by: Associated Press

A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccination at a distribution hub Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, at North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford, Texas.

Kim Luce was told that her mother, who lives in Neuvant House of Lawrence, would be vaccinated as part of Phase 1 of the state’s coronavirus plan.

But as of Wednesday, her mother and the other residents at the retirement and assisted living facility had not yet been vaccinated, even though Douglas County began vaccinating people in Phase 2 on Tuesday.

“When they moved on to Phase 2, that’s when everyone went, ‘Wait a second, we’re not finished with Phase 1,'” Luce said of her and other concerned family members of residents.

On Tuesday, the county began distributing 1,300 vaccines to randomly selected residents 65 and older as part of Phase 2 distribution. Luce wondered why some of those vaccines were not given to residents of long-term care facilities who “are the most vulnerable people in our community.”

“The whole thing is just frustrating, and I’m sad,” she said.

Charlie Bryan, chair of the Vaccination Planning Unit of the county’s Unified Command structure, said some of the difficulty and confusion surrounding vaccine distribution have stemmed from the state’s updated phases.

On Jan. 7, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment updated its vaccine phases to Phases 1 through 5, instead of the prior phases, which included Phases 1A and 1B. Previously, vaccinations for residents of long-term care facilities were supposed to be handled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pharmacy Partnership for Long-term Care Program. When the state updated its phases, additional long-term care facilities were added to Phase 1.

“When the state changed to Phase 1, we recognized that the group was expanded, and we learned that the CDC’s Pharmacy Partnership Program was not going to cover the newly defined group,” Bryan said. The newly defined group, Bryan said, now includes facilities defined as long-term care assisted independent living facilities.

The health department has identified 17 Douglas County long-term care assisted independent living facilities that did not get covered by the CDC’s program. The total number of doses the county needs to vaccinate residents of these facilities was 1,114, as of Wednesday morning.

But the health department isn’t planning on prioritizing these individuals in Phase 2, despite the fact that they were part of Phase 1.

Bryan said that during Phase 1, KDHE designated where vaccines must go when it distributed doses. That is, KDHE would send Douglas County doses specifically for health care workers or workers critical to pandemic response continuity.

When the state added long-term care assisted independent living facilities to Phase 1 on Jan. 7, it never asked the local health department how many doses it needed for that group. Then, on Jan. 20, the state announced it was moving to Phase 2.

Douglas County moved on to Phase 2 before Phase 1 had been completed because of the state decision, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge.

“The Governor last week made the decision to move the state into Phase 2, and we respect that decision,” he said in a Tuesday email to the Journal-World.

The county now has the authority to do any sub-prioritization it needs within Phase 2. That is, KDHE is no longer designating which groups vaccines must go to, Bryan said.

As the Journal-World reported, however, the health department announced Tuesday night that doses would be distributed “equitably” among those who qualify for Phase 2. That means that even though the individuals in long-term care assisted independent living facilities originally qualified for Phase 1, they will now be treated the same as other members of the Phase 2 population.

“Everybody wants to have special status in Phase 2 and we are trying to give everyone a little something,” Bryan said. “The idea was to make progress across the board.”

Bryan said that residents living in long-term care assisted independent living facilities fit into three different categories in Phase 2: congregate living, residents 65 and older and anyone who was eligible to be vaccinated in Phase 1 but has not yet received a shot. He did not specify whether that would mean these individuals would have a better chance of getting a vaccine faster.

Bryan said that the risk for infection in an independent living facility is generally not the same as that of a nursing home, and that “independent living generally means that you are independent.”

But Luce, the woman whose mother lives in Neuvant House, said her mom is under hospice care, cannot speak and has Alzheimer’s disease. The level of care being provided at Neuvant House, Luce said, is certainly higher than that of an independent living facility.

Tracy Harmon, the director of Arbor Court Retirement Community at Alvamar, also said she was frustrated that the state moved on to Phase 2 before Phase 1 was completed. Residents at her facility have not been vaccinated. Meanwhile, Harmon said residents in Arbor Court’s sister facility in Topeka have already received the vaccine.

“I feel like we just keep getting left out of the loop,” she said.

Laura Green, whose mom lives at Meadowlark Estates, said residents at that senior facility have also not received the vaccine. When the county announced that people aged 65 and older should register themselves on a vaccine interest form, she signed up her mom. And this week, Green’s mother was one of the lucky individuals who was randomly assigned one of 1,300 doses at LMH Health.

Bryan suggests residents living in long-term care assisted independent living facilities do what Green’s mom did and become registered on the county’s vaccine interest form. He qualified that this option would only be possible for residents who are physically able to move and transport themselves to the vaccination clinics.

The health department plans to work with residents and facilities who cannot provide transportation to vaccination clinics. If necessary, the health department will go to a long-term care assisted independent living facility to host a vaccination clinic.

Bryan also said that KDHE just this week gave the health department information about who its local pharmacy partners are. Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health will now be able to transfer doses to those pharmacy partners, who can then host vaccine clinics at long-term care assisted independent living facilities. The health department plans to begin transferring doses to these partners next week.

“If you’re a provider who has not enrolled in the state, now’s the time to step up and help,” Bryan said. Any medical facility interested in becoming a provider of the COVID-19 vaccine can email kdhe.COVIDenrollment@ks.gov for more information.

Bryan said that residents in long-term care assisted independent living facilities are “just part of the mix now” in Phase 2.

“But we’ll get it done,” he said. “We just need more vaccine.”