Scripps Health joined a few San Diego County health systems Tuesday that have begun administering the COVID-19 vaccine to residents age 65 and older.
When California opened vaccines beyond the Phase 1A group (critical health workers, nursing home workers and their patients) to include anyone 65 years of age or older, county public health officials San Diego quickly admitted that they did not yet have enough vaccines for expansion.
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But health systems that have additional doses of vaccine available can go at their own pace, the county said. On Tuesday, Scripps Health said they were one of them.
Scripps Health will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine starting Wednesday to patients 65 years of age or older by appointment. Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, medical director of acute care, said that within 6 hours of the announcement, 6,800 patients were already scheduled for appointments.
Patients will be notified through the MyScripps portal if they are eligible for the vaccine. Appointments will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis from certain clinics.
“Patients who are unable to get a vaccine appointment during these clinics will be notified when additional consultations are available,” the health group said. “Patients with Scripps are being asked not to call their doctors’ offices because they can’t schedule these vaccines.”
The health group said the doses to be used in patients over 65 were a remnant of their efforts to vaccinate their health workers, about 1,000.
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No additional doses from the federal or local government have yet been provided for the group over 65 years of age. Sharieff said that by scheduling so many appointments, they took “a little faith” that doses would come through their government associations.
While Sharieff acknowledges that 6,800 patients are a large number, there are still tens of thousands of patients in his system who are still anxiously awaiting the vaccine.
“I can’t get everyone right away, but it’s a start, so I just want to ask for a little patience,” Sharieff said. “The fact that we’re developing it as quickly as possible is exciting. As soon as we get more vaccine, we’ll open our clinics.”
UC San Diego Health is, as of Tuesday, the only other health system capable of providing vaccines to the group over the age of 65. They hoped to vaccinate about 500 patients a day at their facilities “in addition to the nearly 10,000 UC San Diego Health employees who have already received the first doses in phase 1A.”
The health system prioritized those with comorbidities and those with a serious risk of COVID-19 infection and contacted these patients directly.
Kaiser Permanente, on the other hand, still vaccinated only health and senior workers and their patients because of their scarce supply of vaccines.
“The recent expansion of state eligibility to include people over the age of 65 has challenged the entire health care system, including Kaiser Permanente,” a Kaiser spokesman said in a statement to NBC 7.
The hospital says they have received an average of 40,000 individual doses of vaccine a week for the entire state system, which is still enough to accommodate the Phase 1A group.
The San Diego County public health system was making moves to vaccinate the oldest population in the region, but it has not yet been able to open vaccines to anyone 65 and older. On Monday, officials announced they would open their vaccination sites to people over 75, creating a mess of confusion at Petco Park’s large “Super Vaccination Center.”
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Officials said the measure was motivated by a slowdown in COVID-19 vaccination sites, as well as efforts to vaccinate people at higher risk for coronavirus complications. San Diego residents who belong to the eligible group and cannot receive an appointment through their healthcare provider can create appointments.
San Diego County said as more doses become available next month, vaccines will be expanded to more than 600,000 people in the Phase 1B group.