A few health centers already operate mass vaccination sites, but all give preference to their own patients and neighbors – most people are likely to get sick from COVID-19 and the least likely to be vaccinated. Everyone is expanding their capacity to provide vaccinations, with state support.
“Our health centers want to make sure the patients closest to the disease are the closest to the vaccine,” said Michael Curry, chief executive of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “They know that they are likely to be hospitalized more and that they are likely to die.”
In this way, the health centers, which mainly provide primary care and other services, offer people with low incomes, face a paradoxical challenge: dealing with an avalanche of calls from people who are eager for the vaccine and also those who are unsure reach and convince.
“When you open the doors, you see the first flood of people, the strong yes,” said Manny Lopes, CEO of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. ‘But you need to stay focused on those who are on the’ maybe ‘list, and those who say the loud’ no ‘. ”
The health centers report that they have received enough vaccine so far. But they did not vaccinate large numbers – mostly their own staff members and the few patients who are 75 years and older. Life expectancy is lower among coloreds who make up 60 to 80 percent of customers from many centers, Curry explained.
With the expanded suitability, health center officials have expressed hope that the state supply will keep pace with the growing demand. In addition, 15 health centers in Massachusetts expect to receive additional doses of vaccine from the federal government within the next two weeks, under a new program to replenish state supplies. Curry said it is not yet known how many doses will come through this route.
Health center patients represent a significant portion of the state’s population, Curry noted. The centers serve one in every seven residents of the state; in Boston, it’s one of two, he said. From their own patients, they were eventually able to reach nearly 700,000 people over the age of 16 as their fitness increased.
In the group just eligible for Phase 2, which numbers about 1 million in the country, the health centers serve more than 60,000 people aged 65 and older – plus thousands of younger people who have two conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, smoking and asthma. .
Health center patients have such high rates of illness. They tend to live in the communities where the virus spreads the fastest and also face the biggest barriers to being vaccinated, such as poor internet access, lack of transport or mistrust of vaccines – all the problems the centers say they have well positioned.
In Massachusetts, 6 percent of vaccinations were given to black people, while they represented 7 percent of the population and accounted for 8 percent of COVID-19 cases, according to new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The differences are stronger among the Spanish in the state: they make up 12 percent of the population, but are responsible for 29 percent of the COVID-19 cases – and have received only 5 percent of the vaccine doses.
As the locks are now open to people over 65, health centers are trying to address different challenges. Some work with other community groups or the municipal government. They hire staff and keep thumbs up that federal and state funds will eventually get in their way. And some get help from the national guard.
The Brockton neighborhood health center was so overwhelmed by calls from people seeking vaccinations that it had to hire eight extra telephone staff members and add 16 lines – and people still get busy signals from time to time, CEO Sue Joss said. .
The center has vaccinated about 450 to 500 people a week, but expects it to increase after March 1, when a collaborative effort with the city in the Shaw Center begins.
“It’s a big leap,” Joss said.
The site will only be open to patients at the Brockton Health Center and residents.
Meanwhile, amid the huge demand, the Brockton Center is calling in eligible individual patients and urging them to make appointments. The center, which comes from the local community, taught the center how extensive the uncertainty about the vaccine is. Only 43 percent of employees agreed to be vaccinated, and among black staff, only 28 percent took the vaccine, Joss said.
The center made videos of staff members being vaccinated and talking about their decision, and it appointed ‘COVID vaccine ambassadors’, one Haitian and one Cape Verde, to spread the word in their communities.
Other community health centers have seen similar problems and followed similar approaches.
“Some of the challenges facing our staff are with the confidence of vaccines,” said Dr Charles Anderson, CEO of the Dimock Center in Roxbury.
Countermeasures that require a sensitive approach, he said.
‘It’s not just about providing information. “It’s about allowing people to tell their stories,” Anderson said. Like Brockton, Dimock made videos of staff members who were unsure about the vaccine but decided to get it.
“They tell their story about how they became comfortable with the vaccine and developed confidence in the vaccine,” Anderson said. “Their story resonates with their neighbor.”
Dimock is also making a bigger effort to meet the growing demand a building on its nine-acre campus, with plans to open it on March 1 for Dimock patients and people living nearby. Dimock expects to administer 1,000 to 1,200 doses per week at the new site.
Similarly, the Codman Square Health Center, along with other health centers and Boston Medical Center, opened a vaccination site in the Russell Auditorium last week, which was a testing center. The site starts at 400 a day, but officials hope to increase it to 1,000 a day, and it is listed on the state vaccination site. But on Friday morning, the site served only a handful of people; a sign that blames the weather-related delays in vaccines.
When the Reggie Lewis Center opened in Roxbury, a site was intended for mass vaccination to serve the local community, the first customers seemed to be mostly white people from outside the city. Sandra Cotterell, CEO of Codman Square, said there could be a risk with the Russell website, but she does not think it will happen because health centers call their patients and book appointments for them.
“We reach out aggressively to our own patients,” she said.
The Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center in Dorchester takes a hybrid approach – reaching out to its own patients, but also vaccinating other members of the community by working with local organizations, such as Central Boston Elder Services, where there is Friday vaccinated.
Felice J. Freyer can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @felicejfreyer.