Hospice and home health franchise company Interim HealthCare’s staffing segment is gearing up to assist with COVID vaccinations. The company will provide additional personnel to support health departments, health care providers and senior communities with administering vaccines to help reduce wait times.
To date, three large drugmakers have produced COVID-19 vaccines: British-based pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN), Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) in partnership with German BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX).
“Although their availability is exciting, the U.S. health care ecosystem grapples with how to effectively distribute and staff for the administration of the vaccine,” said Jennifer Sheets, president and CEO of Interim HealthCare. “Our health care providers have never backed down from a challenge and they’re stepping up again now for our entire health care system and those who need it.”
Hospice and other community-based providers have identified staff vaccination as a top priority for 2021, according to a recent Axxess survey of home-based care providers. About 22% of the thousands of respondents were hospices.
According to the report, nearly 62% of overall respondents indicated that their organization would require those with direct patient contact to receive the coronavirus vaccine, and almost 75% of larger organizations indicated they would require it among staff.
At least 52 Interim staff are currently deployed for vaccine distribution out of multiple franchise locations. One franchisee, Interim HealthCare of Minneapolis, has established a COVID-19 Call Center to provide local providers with on-demand staffing support.
Interim’s franchise business model is unique in health care. Franchise owners in the network range from large private equity investors to mom-and-pop startups, some of which have been in the owners’ families for two or three generations. The company recently ranked 24th in Franchise Direct’s Top 100 Global Franchises.
“As a registered nurse, I have seen first-hand the power of life-saving medicine,” Sheets said. “The availability of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are nothing short of medical miracles.”
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