As 2021 comes to an end and we look forward to 2022, one of the things I am personally most excited about is life getting back to what we considered normal and that we will really be able to say goodbye to the pandemic. Going out to restaurants, socializing with friends and family at parties, listening to live music are all on my list of things I can’t wait to experience in the new year. We can make our dreams of a normal reality come to fruition through vaccination against the COVID-19 virus.

Echoing the announcement of the two new federal vaccine mandates, we wanted to again urge everyone not vaccinated to become vaccinated, especially people working in the agencies we serve. Under this new mandate, vaccinations are mandatory for companies with more than 100 people. The White House also recently announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at the Department of Health and Human Services is requiring that health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid also be fully vaccinated. This applies to more than 17 million workers at approximately 76,000 health care facilities, including hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The direct support professionals (DSPs) rate of vaccination in New York is 44 percent. Once the mandate comes through, these professionals who are not vaccinated are going to have to test weekly or not have a job, and this could have catastrophic consequences on the agencies. Get your vaccine now so you can get both doses by January 5th, 2022, when the mandate goes into effect.

In other news, it has been a pleasure serving our newest agency partner, Community Resources Staten Island, as they recently made the switch to HRLTCP.  Their staff has been outstanding, extremely responsive, and very quick to answer our team with any questions. They came to us wanting a change. When they looked at what we had to offer with our web portal and that the nurses were all in, it was a no-brainer for them. The communication between their team and ours is ongoing and fantastic.

As we close out this year, we look forward to continuing to support our agencies in their philanthropy and fundraising events in 2022. We are grateful to be a profitable business that can turn that around and help out our agency partners as they continue to contribute such meaningful work each day. 

I’d like to close out 2021 with a mention to our HRLTCP team…I’ve never worked with a team as good as I have now, they are second to none. Thank you for serving our clients selflessly this year!

Yours in Health, 

Angelo Angerame 

CEO, Hudson Regional Long Term Care Pharmacy