The State of Kansas has created an online dashboard that makes it easier for the public to track vaccination rates among healthcare personnel in the state’s long-term care facilities in anticipation of the federal regulation requiring staff vaccinations within the nation’s more than 15,000 Medicare and Medicaid-participating nursing homes.
According to Governor Laura Kelly’s Office, the anticipated emergency federal requirement is being developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . This new requirement is a key component of protecting the health and safety of nursing home residents and staff by ensuring that all nursing home staff receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
The state’s newly launched dashboard extrapolates data specific to Kansas from the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network COVID-19 Long Term Care Facility Module and provides a view of the healthcare personnel vaccination rates for Kansas’s federally licensed LTCFs.
The most recent healthcare personnel vaccination rate data available updated August 26th shows that in Kansas, 86.7 percent of current residents and 58.1 percent of current staff (healthcare personnel) have completed COVID-19 vaccinations per facility.
The Kansas dashboard, to be updated by KDHE Fridays by 12:30 p.m., includes both a map view and a table view. The map view of the dashboard categorizes federally licensed LTCFs into four categories based on healthcare personnel vaccination rates:
- Below 50%
- 50-70%
- 70-90%
- Above 90%
The table view provides a list of all federally licensed LTCFs and their healthcare personnel vaccination rates.
The state dashboard includes the most recent healthcare personnel vaccination rate data available. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes data reported by nursing homes on a weekly basis; the data is typically published 11 days after being submitted. More information is available on the CMS website.
