How do hospitals and the province decide who to vaccinate?

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Every Friday, the Shawnee Mission Post publishes answers to questions we received from readers about the process of being vaccinated in Johnson County.

This week’s questions focus on questions from readers who want more information on how the province and local health systems prioritize people for vaccination and why vaccine availability is still so limited.

Why does the province only vaccinate people aged 80 and older?

• In Level 1 of Phase 2 of the implementation plan of the country, people aged 65 and older can be vaccinated.
• But the reason provincial clinics focus on those over 80 is because the clinics are meant to target people at greatest risk for serious diseases if they contract COVID-19, said Elizabeth Holzschuch, director of epidemiology.
• The province has made an effort in the past week to reach out to all the people aged 80 and older who have completed the province’s interest survey, and health officials say they hope to vaccinate those in the 65-79 age group. in the next few weeks.

But hospitals is vaccination of 65 and older. Why?

• Short answer: because the country told them.
• While the province’s clinic focuses on 80-year-olds and older, the province has encouraged hospitals to start distributing vaccines to their own patients who are 65 and older, in order to reach people faster.
• Since then, hospitals have focused primarily on vaccinating their own patients aged 65 and older, while the province has focused on the 80+ group.

How do hospitals prioritize who gets vaccines?

• This probably varies, and we have not yet heard from every hospital system what their internal process is to fill in the vaccination times at their clinics.
• AdventHealth and the University of Kansas Health System both say they invite suitable people from their patient lists using random pool names and do not prioritize certain individuals or groups.
• Criteria for who qualifies as a patient may also differ from hospital to hospital. KU considers everyone who has been treated there for the past three years to be on their patient list, for example.
• If you think you are a patient or have recently been treated in a hospital, you should check with the provider to see if you are eligible to get a vaccine there.

So, if I’m over 65 but not a patient in a large hospital, am I lucky now?

• Not quite, but it can be harder to find a vaccine right now.
• Some non-patients were able to get appointments through hospitals by filling out the forms of hospitals for vaccination for the general public. Click here to find out more about how each major hospital system in Johnson County registers people’s interest.
• There are also a very limited amount of doses offered to 65-year-olds and older by select retail pharmacies in Johnson County. These slots are also quickly full.
• Also, make sure you fill out the country’s vaccine interest survey (this is separate from the hospital’s forms of interest). This will put your name on the country’s roles when they eventually get into the 65-79 group.
• In general, health officials advise residents aged 65 and older to sign up to receive the vaccine in as many ways as possible. This increases your chances of getting a vaccine appointment somewhere.

Suppose I am younger than 65 but have a serious underlying health condition. Do I still have to wait?

• At the moment, the answer is unfortunate: yes.
• Age, under Kansas’ phased distribution plan, is the most important factor to consider for who is being vaccinated now. It is beyond the country’s control.
• County health departments in Kansas are allowed to divide the phases of the state into priority groups – as was done in Tier 1 of Phase 2, and prefer to utilize teachers and first responders, in addition to those 65 years and older – but the country can not move. to future phases involving younger people, until the state does so.
• People younger than 65 with serious underlying health conditions, including cancer, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease and heart disease, are also part of Phase 3 of the rollout of the state, as well as pregnant women. A full breakdown of the phase’s introduction of vaccines is available here.

Do hospitals get their own vaccinations separately from the province’s grant?

• No, there are no separate doses that go to Johnson County hospitals. All doses are currently being treated by the provincial health department.
• Johnson County receives between 5,800 and 7,000 first doses per week through the state. And the doses are distributed among the clinic and local health systems of the country.
• How many doses each health system receives changes each week, depending on a number of factors. In the past week, for example, approximately 1,900 doses have been allocated to residents and staff in unlicensed senior housing communities. So it was 1900 doses that ultimately did not go to hospitals.

Do we know how many doses have been administered in Johnson County so far?

• The county says by the end of Friday, more than 50,000 Johnson County residents will have received at least their first dose, including about 40 percent of educators and school staff.
• Doses administered by local health systems are included in the nationwide total.
• According to a spokesperson, AdventHealth receives up to 2,000 doses per week and has now vaccinated about 10,000 people, including employees.
• The Olathe Medical Center said on Thursday it had vaccinated about 4,000 patients aged 65 and older and expects to vaccinate another 2,000 by the end of next week.

When are more doses coming?

• Hopefully soon. There have been some promising developments that suggest the supply of vaccines could pick up in the coming weeks.
• The Kansas Department of Health and the Environment said this week that the federal government plans to double the number of doses Kansas receives each week.
• Government Laura Kelly has said she wants to use some of the extra doses to coordinate the vaccination of more K-12 teachers across the country so schools can reopen earlier.
• In addition, the number of doses administered in local pharmacies is also expected to grow in the coming weeks.

Will the distribution of vaccines affect the past winter again?

• It is possible.
• The problem will not be next week’s forecast – it is expected to be much warmer – but this week’s delays left many communities in Kansas without the doses they need for clinics next week, said Kristi Zears, director of communications. .
• Johnson County said from Thursday that he had not received his doses for next week’s clinics. This has made it difficult to plan as the country is reluctant to make appointments for vaccines it does not yet have.