A day after state health officials announced that 2,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had expired under lax Shelby County Health Department supervision, one employee was fired, another retired and the drumming rose for state and federal investigations.
At a press conference on Wednesday, February 24, Shelby County Department of Health Director Alisa Haushalter acknowledged that she had considered resigning, but decided that her duty as a leader required her to be “transparent about what happened.” .
‘It’s my responsibility to be accountable for what happened, to elevate to the state when I know there were wasted doses, which I did, to work closely with the state to determine what the issues were , and to solve the problems in a systematic and organized way, ”she said.
U.S. Representative David Kustoff is calling for further investigation, which he says could rise to the federal level.
“As a result of gross negligence and possible misconduct, the Shelby County Government’s executive mismanaged and wasted thousands of vaccines, ultimately failing our local community,” Kustoff said in a statement Wednesday.
“Fortunately, the Tennessee Department of Health is working with the City of Memphis to bring about an efficient and effective distribution process. “Without a doubt, local officials must be held accountable,” he said. “I welcome the further investigation by state authorities and possibly federal authorities into this fiasco.”
When the state announced its findings on Tuesday, it said it expected federal partners to investigate as well.
Haushalter said local efforts to vaccinate state policy and teachers began early Wednesday with the ball rolling, with thousands of doses set aside for it.
When the news spread that the Department of Health was saving doses for a group that did not have priority, it caused more unrest in Nashville.
“The stock for a later phase was not allowed,” State Commissioner Lisa Piercey said late Wednesday, “and this action has prevented high-risk seniors from receiving their fair share of this limited and life-saving resource.”
When government officials told the health department that they would have to wait until early March to vaccinate teachers, there were about 50,000 doses available.
When ice and snow came and doses almost expired, the Department of Health opened indoor premises and ejected 2,000 doses, but that was not enough, Haushalter said.
Storms and then low water pressure exacerbated the situation and closed the vaccination sites for 10 days.
Haushalter said most of the waste occurred Wednesday, Feb. 10 or Thursday, Feb. 11, including a large-disc Pfizer vaccine that was thawed and expired before it could be used.
Another dose of 700 was dropped on Monday, Feb. 15 because it was not used in a clinic that was quickly set up for teachers at Shelby County Schools to receive doses.
Snow and ice made it difficult to get to the head office in Avery Avenue.
A variety of factors can cause doses to be lost, including thawing and expiration before use, being left behind after clinic sessions, or being returned to a clinic but having to be destroyed due to temperature changes. , Housekeeper said.
She realized that about 1300 doses had expired on Saturday, February 13th.
The Department of Health has hired a contract pharmacist, Marilyn Bruce, as director of pharmacy services. Her responsibility was to manage and prepare the vaccine supply for injection.
Bruce lost her job. Dr. Judy Martin, head of vaccination at the Department of Health, retired in the fraka.
Haushalter said she was sure the mistakes were not intentional. One change that has already been identified is that more than one employee will have a key to the pharmacy to monitor inventory levels.
‘It’s a very complicated vaccination campaign, and especially the Pfizer vaccine is very difficult to manage, temperature control, dates can be in one type of storage and days it can be in a different type of storage, and we have several, multiple amounts had. in, ”Haushalter said.
“My own belief is that trays were drawn for events in the future and that one tray expired without notice that we had to bring the vaccine out to the public,” she said.
When the weather hit and it was expected to close for days, Haushalter stopped shipping from the state on Friday, Feb. 19, to prevent supplies from continuing to stockpile.
She warned the health department that doses were lost on Saturday, February 13, and heard nothing back, she said.
“Throughout the week, I made extra efforts to reach Dr. (Michelle) Fiscus, (medical director of the State Health Department’s vaccination program), without calling back.”
Eventually, Haushalter said, she called Dr. Tim Jones, medical officer of the health department, to warn him of the waste.
This call set in motion the state investigation of processes here, which began and continues on the evening of Friday, February 19th.
At the end of this week, the Shelby County Department of Health will have a plan to work with the state to address deficiencies in local processes. According to her, the hope is that the department of health will be able to receive and distribute vaccination again.
For the time being, the city of Memphis has control over the COVID-19 vaccine and all the other vaccines given by the Department of Health, including measles and influenza. The doses are stored at Regional One.
In the meantime, health partners across the city, including hospitals and clinics, will operate vaccination sites within the city limits with the city government.
Baptist Memorial Hospital and Christ Community Health Services have identified places where they can expand rapidly. The question, given the uproar Tuesday at the Department of Health, is how much more vaccine they expect to get.
“We can not know exactly how to prepare until we know what kind of vaccine we are going to receive,” said Keith Norman, vice president of government relations for Baptist Memorial Health Care.
“We do understand from the investigation that has taken place, and some changes are being made,” he said. “Healthcare partners, hospitals and other community partners will play a greater role.”
The decision on the award is likely to be made at a community-wide meeting of the partners, Memphis City chief operating officer Doug McGowen said Tuesday.
In a move planned for weeks, Christ Community and the city of Memphis opened a driveway at Greater Imani Church on Wednesday, with appointments to give 1,000 shots a day.
“We are a contracted operator for the city,” said Shantelle Leatherwood, CEO of Christ Community. “We provide all the clinical services – the actual vaccination – and the city provides support through volunteers and FEMA to help with registration and checkpoints and data entry.”
As a management partner, the city offers trailers, tents and portable toilets. It also covers the cost of Christ Fellowship, including labor.
‘We’re contracted to the city until they tell us they no longer need our services. ‘They basically shared with us that we honestly need to act at maximum capacity over the next few weeks to fill all the vaccinations scheduled last week, this week and for the next two weeks,’ Leatherwood said.
She also offered Christ Community’s clinics in South Third Street and in Hickory Hill as large sites in medically underserved areas.
“We have the space and sufficient parking space to handle the cargo on those sites,” she said.
The challenge will be how much the partners can expand themselves.
‘I think we can handle two sites at once; “I’m not sure if we three can do that,” said Leatherwood.
For Baptist, it comes down to the amount of doses it can get, which can increase significantly within a matter of a week. On Wednesday, the FDA said that Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine appears to meet the threshold for emergency authorization.
If approved, the Biden government is prepared to export 3 million to 4 million doses of the J&J vaccine next week.
“If they give us just about 100 more doses, we’ll probably stay in the hospital,” Norman said. “But if we get an extra 1000, we can probably sharpen services in places where it can be an easy and convenient process to help people in a dignified way, as we want to serve voters.”
Baptist has several places of mass in mind.