Maryhill Manor nursing home just received H1N1 shots for employees.
NIAGARA, WI -- When the H1N1 vaccine was first made available in October, health care employees were supposed to be the top priority. However, one local Wisconsin nursing home just received their vaccines...today.
Maryhill Manor Nursing Home ordered their H1N1 employee vaccinations from Marinette County back on September 30.
Despite working with older residents that are at low risk, Maryhill Manor Administrator Jana Clement said it's still critical her employees get the vaccination as soon as possible.
"We're at the forefront of providing workforce safety and the H1N1 really is important,” said Clement. “Especially to our younger employees who are at that age where they have young children and many needs."
TV6 contacted the Marinette Health and Human Services department about the delay with Maryhill's vaccines. They said the department had “no knowledge of a nursing home not receiving its shots...and health care workers wanting the shot should come to the department or one of the clinics.”
"We were shocked to find out from you that Marinette County had no knowledge that they had missed the doses that we had ordered,” Clement said. “For us to send that number of employees to Marinette to get a vaccination is out of the question."
Following our interview on Tuesday, Maryhill called the health department about the missing shots.
This afternoon, the department delivered 100 doses of the H1N1 vaccine requested by Maryhill.
TV6 also made calls to several other nursing homes across Northern Wisconsin and the U.P. All of them, including Golden Living Nursing Home in Florence County, received their shots by the beginning of November.
"Once they decided up at Golden Living Center that they needed vaccines, I packed it up and delivered it to them with the necessary forms,” said Director of the Florence County Health Department Karen Wertanen. “Then they're sending the forms back to me to enter into the Wisconsin Immunization Registry that the vaccine has been given. So it's a pretty smooth process."
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