Minnesota hospitals say state-wide vaccine distribution is at ‘unsustainable crossroads’

Updated at 8:35 p.m.

A coalition of Minnesota hospitals says the state’s COVID-19 distribution system is harming vaccine patients, and calls on the state Department of Health to provide more health care providers.

In a letter to health commissioner Jan Malcolm, the Minnesota Hospital Association wrote that some clinics have not received doses for days, so they cannot vaccinate the oldest and most vulnerable patients.

“Despite our continued partnership and our tireless efforts to work with the state, we believe that the award of vaccines has reached an unsustainable crossroads,” said the association’s president, Dr. Rahul Koranne, written. “The lottery system is harming patients and communities and the allocation to healthcare providers needs to increase.”

The hospital association’s letter indicates a notable rift in partnership between the state and hospitals to get Minnesotans vaccinated.

In the initial introduction of the state, hospitals served as centers for the distribution of vaccines, giving the vast majority of doses to staff and more recently to people in private practice, such as dentists and doctors who were not connected to a hospital system.

In January, the state also opened vaccinations for people 65 and older, although most Minnesota hospitals only focused on their oldest patients, leaving many people between the ages of 65 and 75 relying solely on the state’s vaccination sites. These appointments are secured by a state-run lottery system.

Meanwhile, the demand for vaccines is much greater than the supply. On a weekly basis, the state is responsible for determining where vaccines should go, and how many health care systems or local public health departments should receive.

“My members are increasingly being put in the impossible position of telling their patients and their communities that they do not have vaccines for them,” Koranne wrote. “We have members who have had no vaccine for three weeks, leaving the infrastructure of clinics behind to quickly get shots fired in the arms.”

In a statement, Malcolm said MDH had notified the hospital association in an email on Friday that there would be changes in a “random process” for small and medium-sized providers.

“From the vaccines that arrive in the week of 15 February, we are moving to a process where the eight regional health care coalitions will work with the suppliers in their regions to allocate COVID-19 vaccines based on supplier capacity, community needs and priorities in the whole country, ”Malcolm said. “With this new process, these groups will be responsible for advising MDH on which specific sites in their region should receive vaccinations and where they should be sent.”

Despite government counseling that high-risk healthcare providers get the virus and people who work in long-term care and need to get vaccinated first, some Minnesota hospitals have given the opportunity to low-risk employees to get COVID. 19 to the work – count workers and employees without patient contact – a practice scrutinized by the State Health Department.

Korans said hospitals and clinics had been preparing to give vaccines for months, and that their storage and vaccination capacity had been stagnant as the state shifted doses to large vaccination sites, where people had to win a lottery ticket. to be vaccinated.

This weekend, the state is giving away about 9,000 doses on a single site in Minneapolis, and plans to soon also give vaccines in Duluth, Minnestown and southern Minnesota.

Korans said these places are out of reach for people who live in the western part of the state or are in rural areas, and want the state to reconsider the lottery.

“The maximum utilization of the existing infrastructure and role of vaccinating clinics, hospitals and health systems enables vulnerable populations, including the elderly and disabled in Minnesota, to receive their vaccines at their local clinics where they receive regular care,” he said. .