Now that the H1N1 flu has been declared a national emergency, I did a quick check of where to get the H1N1 vaccine.
Allocation of vaccine doses delivered to Hawaii is apparently made by the State Department of Health.
Clearly, they’re setting aside a large supply for schools.
But where should others go? Here’s a link to the DOH roster of where to get your H1N1 vaccination, updated on October 22. Prominent on the list are Safeway stores, Walgreens, and Times Supermarkets, along with the Kalihi-Palama Health Center and two locations of Mina Pharmacy.
What’s odd about the list is what isn’t listed. Longs Drugs isn’t there. How about Queen’s Medical Center and its long list of doctors? The Honolulu Medical Group, a long established medical clinic where I’ve been a patient my entire life? Search the list for “Kaiser”, expecting to find Kaiser Permanente’s hospitals and clinics that have nearly 225,000 members. Not there. These seem like significant omissions.
I can’t find a list of actual vaccine deliveries, as opposed to “allocations” or orders, but the DOH list appears to indicate that private corporate chain stores are getting the bulk of initial allocations, ahead of key health providers, clinics, and doctors.
I’ve been told some of the major health providers have received only token vaccine deliveries to date, unlike Safeway and others.
Is DOH trying to drive business to Safeway and Walgreens pharmacies rather than to established medical clinics and providers?
And notice the “additional information”: “Call for insurance restrictions…Please call ahead to verify availability and cost of vaccine administration.”
Perhaps things have changed. I tried to get a flu shot at Safeway and couple of years ago but left after being told that they didn’t accept HMSA insurance. Perhaps that’s changed. If so, why the warnings to check “restrictions”?
In any case, some additional reporting is in order.
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I’m with a private non-profit that’s working with the DOH on compiling and maintaining this list (which is why I’m posting this as ‘anonymous’). While I can’t be sure that DOH isn’t rationing vaccines towards corporate entities, what we understand the process to be is that doctors, clinics and businesses that wish to dispense the vaccine and wish to be added to this list, must sign up to do so. If they haven’t signed up, they’re not on the list. How is DOH getting the word out to doctors and clinics about signing up? I don’t know. The process does seem to be lacking somewhere as Long’s and other clinics and locations who have consistently been on the list for seasonal flu (this year and in previous years), haven’t yet signed up for H1N1.
As an addendum to my earlier comment, we’ve heard directly from a few doctors’ office and clinics who have stated that they do not wish to be on the list, as they don’t have the resources to handle the expected deluge of clients who wish to be vaccinated, and would at this time prefer to limit their services to current patients or those who hear about them by word of mouth versus a widely publicized list. We’ve only heard this from smaller operations, and not larger groups like Long’s, Kaiser and HMC but it’s possible the larger operations are possibly thinking the same thing. We were working with DOH during the vaccine shortage in 2004 and the amount of response (and complaints) we received at that time was unprecedented. People who were not considered ‘at risk’ and therefore not one of the priority groups set to receive the vaccination were making bold attempts to ‘cut in line’ and receive their vaccinations anyway. I think both DOH and the sites that dispense vaccines are being extra cautious in their messaging and publicity efforts to avoid a similar panic and overwhelming of resources. Which of course leaves the public more confused and frustrated.
Good morning all…
Over the past few days, we have received a number of (unhappy) calls from hospitals, subacute facilities and individual providers stating they have not received ‘any’ of the H1N1 vaccine they ordered. We are all hearing that vaccine production is falling behind schedule and the incidence of H1N1 illness is rapidly escalating.
We will be approaching State DOH with this concern however first we need a good picture of the problem so we can work effectively with them to find a meaningful solution.
WE REQUEST that one representative from your organization complete the following survey. Only one response per organization please and that response should optimally come from the person with first-hand knowledge. Survey deadline is noon, Wednesday, October 28th.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bNv8CdaOvkbSgovRKsNraw_3d_3d
We will share with all of you the findings of this survey.
________________________________________________
TOBY L. CLAIRMONT, RN, CEM
Director, Emergency Services
Healthcare Association of Hawaii
tclairmont@hah-emergency.net
Team Commander (GS-15)
At this moment, http://flu.hawaii.gov/ is down (“server not responding”).
My wife is pregnant. We are Kaiser members. The availability of the H1N1 vaccine for her keeps getting pushed back. If this turns out to be the result of DOH favoritism or other shenanigans, I will be very upset.
Well, it’s true. We heard that H1N1 vaccine started being sold in commercial pharmacies last week, so I called Kaiser today (Halloween) and was told by a consulting nurse that they had only received 200 doses (for their staff) and were expecting more by the end of November!