Update on nursing home staff vaccination rates on Long Island
A nursing home corridor. Credit: iStock
Shot by shot, some nursing homes across Long Island are beginning to show improvement in their staff vaccination rates.
Of Long Island’s 77 nursing homes for which data are available, 33 still have less than half their staff fully vaccinated. That’s better than April 21, when 45 of the homes had less than half their staff vaccinated. Among the brightest spots: Oceanside Care Center, Inc., where 88.8% of staff and 82.8% of residents are fully vaccinated.
At Excel at Woodbury for Rehabilitation and Nursing, the percentage of fully-vaccinated staff rose from 20% on April 21 to 37.4% as of Monday — the largest uptick of any nursing home across Long Island, according to an analysis by The Point.
But that’s still a dangerously low rate. And the disparities between resident and staff vaccination remain, as 88.3% of Excel’s residents have been fully vaccinated.
There are other areas of concern. At Luxor Nursing and Rehabilitation at Mills Pond, only 33.3% of staff had been fully vaccinated. At A. Holly Patterson in Uniondale, just 33.6% of staff had been fully vaccinated, barely a change from its April 21 data, which showed 33.4%.
The state now is making available additional data for assisted living facilities. While the situation is better overall, there are several extraordinarily low staff vaccination rates there, too. At Birchwood Suites in East Northport, just 16% of staff have been fully vaccinated, while at The Bristal at West Babylon, that percentage Is 19.8%. In both cases, more than 96% of residents had been vaccinated.
Of the 98 assisted living facilities on Long Island that reported data, 25 had less than half their staff fully vaccinated. Yet, every single facility had at least 60% of residents fully vaccinated, with the vast majority of them reporting a resident vaccination rate above 90%, and 19 were able to boast that every resident was fully vaccinated.
Just one assisted living facility — Manor Haven Adult Home in Huntington Station — reported a 100% full vaccination rate for both residents and staff. But it has just 32 residents and 12 staff.
See vaccinations rates at nursing home facilities below. To view rates for assisted living facilities, click here.
In six cases, the percentage of completely vaccinated staff decreased, which could happen if a facility added new employees who were unvaccinated.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
