Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award

This award is paused for redesign. Check back in early 2024 for updates!

The Department of Health, in cooperation with the Department of Social and Health Services, the Adult Family Home Council, the Washington Health Care Association, LeadingAge Washington, the Community Residential Services Association, and the Washington Long Term Care Advisory Committee is proud to continue this immunization recognition program.

The Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award program recognizes long term care facilities, nursing homes and agencies in Washington who obtain COVID-19 vaccination rates of at least 80% among their employees. Now in it’s second year, the LTC COVID-19 Vaccine Champion Award recognition program launched in 2021 before the Governor’s vaccine mandate. The award originally required a minimum of 70% healthcare staff vaccination rate.

To participate, facilities report the COVID-19 vaccine completion status for health care personnel, which are defined as all paid employees and volunteers who are present in the facility location during the identified reporting cycle. Facilities will also select a barrier to health care personnel COVID-19 vaccination during registration to work to address throughout the upcoming recognition period.

At the end of the reporting cycle, the facility will confirm their COVID-19 vaccination success by providing a self-reported COVID-19 vaccination rate and reporting how they worked to address the selected barrier. The partnership will recognize facilities that achieve vaccination rates of at least 80% and report on the work done to address selected barriers.

The Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award has three different award levels recognizing facilities and long term care supporting organizations at three levels:

  • Bronze Award: 80 to 89% of their employees vaccinated against COVID-19
  • Silver Award: 90% or more of their employees vaccinated against COVID-19
  • Gold Award: 90% or more of their employees vaccinated against COVID-19, AND 70% or more of vaccinated staff have had their CDC recommended boosters and are considered “up to date” by CDC’s definition at the time the reported data on staff vaccinations were collected.

Awardees

The Immunization Champion Awardees for Fall/Winter 2023 have been selected. These long-term care facilities have an employee COVID-19 vaccination rate of 80% or higher.
Previous Awardees

The Award Process

To qualify for the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award, facilities must do the following:

  • Collect the percentage of employees vaccinated from COVID-19 in your facility from March 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023.
  • Select a COVID-19 vaccination barrier your facility will work on.
  • Fill out the registration survey no later than September 1, 2023.
  • Work on the selected COVID-19 vaccination barrier.
  • Fill out the follow-up survey that covers the March 1 to August 31, 2023 period by September 1, 2023.

Step 1: Initial Registration Survey

Fill out the initial registration survey

The registration survey will ask for your facility's information, point of contact, if you currently track employee COVID-19 vaccination status, and the vaccination barrier your facility has focused on.

Facilities eligible for this award include:

  • Adult Family Homes
  • Assisted Living Facilities
  • Continuing Care Retirement Facilities
  • Multiple Function Facilities/Agencies
  • Nursing Homes
  • Supported Living Agencies
  • Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
  • Enhanced Services Facilities

If you are unsure if your specific workplace qualifies, please email us at flufighter@doh.wa.gov.

Award recognition is given to facilities that identify a goal for the following cycle and identify their employee vaccination level.

Step 2: COVID-19 Vaccination Barriers

Facilities must choose their own COVID-19 vaccination barrier and decide how to address it. A barrier is chosen during the registration survey, listed in step 1. If you have difficulty coming up with ideas, please look at the COVID-19 Vaccine Barriers PDF, which provides sample barriers and how to overcome them. If you have already removed barriers and all staff are fully vaccinated, select Vaccine Barrier 5, and note all barriers have been cleared.

COVID-19 Vaccine Barriers (PDF)

Step 3: Employee COVID-19 Vaccination

When facilities have addressed their vaccination barrier for the time specific  period and are ready to complete the final outcomes survey, they will need to collect the percentage of employees that are vaccinated from COVID-19. Facilities do not need to report any specific or identifying information about their employees.

Organizations who complete the steps listed above will be recognized with the appropriate level recognition, including an award certificate, a Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award window cling and award program logo for use on their website, in social and print media campaigns. Award winners will be recognized on an honor roll list posted to the DOH web page.

When completing the survey reporting employee vaccination information, facility policy and Governor Inslee Proclamation 21-14-COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement should be utilized to guide reported staff participation vaccination requirements.

Final Survey

The Department of Health will email your facility contact when the final survey can be completed. Additionally, we will post the survey link on our Long-Term Care Facility web page (add link) when it is ready. You must complete the steps one through three before you can complete the final survey.

Resources

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about the COVID-19 Long-Term Care Facility Immunization Champion program or other immunization/vaccination questions, please contact us.

Please note the Department of Health does not regulate or supervise long term care facilities. This program is voluntary for any organizations or facilities who wish to participate. The Long-Term Care COVID-19 Immunization Champion Award is made possible through the association member organizations, DSHS, the LTC Advisory Committee, and DOH partnership.