Scripps Health joined several health systems in San Diego County on Tuesday, which began administering the COVID-19 vaccine to residents 65 and older.
When California opened Phase 1A vaccines – critical health care workers, nursing home workers and their patients – to include anyone over the age of 65, San Diego County public health officials quickly acknowledged that they do not yet have enough vaccines for expansion.
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But health care systems that have additional doses of the vaccine available can go at their own pace, the county said. Scripps Health said Tuesday that I am one of them.
Scripps Health will start administering the COVID-19 vaccine starting Wednesday to patients aged 65 and over, by appointment. Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, the medical director for acute care, said within hours of the announcement that 6,800 patients had already been scheduled for appointments.
Patients will be notified via the MyScripps portal if they are eligible for the vaccine. Appointments will be offered based on the first come, first served principle, from there, to certain clinics.
Patients unable to obtain a vaccination program during these clinics will be notified when additional appointments become available, the health group said. Scripps patients are asked not to call their doctors’ offices because they cannot schedule these vaccines.
The health group said the doses to be used in patients over the age of 65 remained from their efforts to vaccinate health workers – about 1,000 in total.
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No additional doses have yet been provided by the federal or local government for the group over 65 years of age. Sharieff said, scheduling so many meetings, that they take “a little faith” that the doses come through their government partnerships.
While Sharieff acknowledges that 6,800 patients is a large number, there are still tens of thousands of patients in their system who are still looking forward to the vaccine.
“I can’t bring them all in right away, but it’s a start, so I just want to ask for a little patience,” Sharieff said. The fact that we implement this as fast as we can is interesting. As soon as we receive more vaccines, we will open our clinics.
UC San Diego Health is, on Tuesday, the only other health system capable of facilitating vaccinations for the group over 65 years old. 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 care system gave priority to those with comorbidities and those at severe risk of COVID-19 infection and contacted those patients directly.
Kaiser Permanente, on the other hand, still vaccinates only health care workers and care workers for the elderly and their patients, due to the limited supply of vaccines.
“The recent expansion of state eligibility to include people over the age of 65 has affected the entire health care system, including Kaiser Permanente,” a Kaiser spokesman said in a statement to NBC 7.
The hospital says they have been given an average of 40,000 single doses of vaccine a week for their entire state system, which is still enough just to accommodate phase 1A.
San Diego County’s public health system was moving to vaccinate the region’s older population, but it was not yet able to open vaccinations to everyone 65 and older. On Monday, officials announced that they will open vaccination sites for those aged 75 and over, creating a mess of confusion at the large “Vaccination Super Center” in Petco Park.
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Officials said the move was caused by a slowdown in COVID-19 vaccination sites, as well as vaccination efforts for people at highest risk for coronavirus complications. San Diego residents who fall into the eligible group and cannot receive an appointment through their healthcare provider can make appointments here.
San Diego County said that as more doses become available next month, vaccinations will be extended to more than 600,000 people in Phase 1B.