Life Care Center of Kirkland to administer second vaccine doses as statewide rollout lags
Vaccination progressing, state addresses lag
The Life Care Center of Kirkland is administering the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to its patients and staff. Meanwhile, the state addresses the slow vaccine roll out after receiving public criticism. Since it first happened to now it seems like an eternity, said Nancy Butner, who managed the March 2020 Covid-19 outbreak at the facility last year.
Life Care Center was the nation s first epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 40 residents died in the first month alone.
Butner is now the Northwest Division Vice President of Life Care Centers of America, and will also receive her second shot on Monday.
Payson Care Center, a nursing and rehabilitation facility, welcomes Gary Olson as its new executive director.
Olson has been a nursing home administrator for 36 years, starting in his home state of Wisconsin but spending most of his career in northern Arizona. He has a bachelorâs degree in health care administration.
âI just like people, getting to know what makes them tick,â Olson shared. âI find wisdom in the elderly.â
âGary has a history of serving facilities outside the Maricopa area,â said Kristin Shambro, vice president of the Mesquite Region for Payson Care Centerâs managing company, Life Care Centers of America. âHe loves the big heart of small towns.â
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COVID-19 vaccine distributed at LifeCare Center, the epicenter of local cases last spring Patrick Quinn and Denise Whitaker, KOMO News reporters
COVID-19 vaccine distributed at LifeCare Center, the epicenter of local cases last spring
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Workers and residents at LifeCare Center in Kirkland on Monday began receiving their initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, several months after the long-term care center became the first place in the U.S. to report a death from coronavirus.
Employees at the center received the first doses of the vaccine, which was approved and shipped in near-record time for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, a testament to how COVID-19 has upended life in the state, the nation and around the world..
Staff at nursing home of coronavirus outbreak receive vaccine 03:27
Kirkland, Washington (CNN)In an instant, nursing director Chelsey Earnest can recall the worst day at work she has ever had. Sometimes it comes back without her trying to remember.
What happened March 4 before the dawn and into the night haunts her.
The sirens seemed to blare endlessly outside the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington. That was the night (we had) like five ambulances in the parking lot, she said.
It was the night she sent patients to the hospital whom she expected would be treated and eventually released. They never came back.