SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Health Department officials announced Monday that the agency is turning to three major health care providers to help expand the launch of COVID-19 in the state starting this week, ahead of a jump in allocated vaccines.
Intermountain Healthcare, Nomi Health and the University of Utah Health will help vaccinate Utahns under an agreement with the state. All three said on Monday that they already have operations in place and plan to expand operations in the coming weeks, before the state’s weekly vaccine allocation is more than twice the total weekly compared to previous weeks.
“These partners will increase our coverage across the state. They will be able to offer large-scale vaccination clinics in some areas where we are currently unable to do so,” said Tom Hudachko, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health. “They have established relationships with many residents of the state who have underlying medical conditions, so we will rely on them to help with those populations.”
Additional distribution of the vaccine
About 10% of the total state population received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the state health department. The partnerships announced Monday will not replace existing vaccine launch locations, such as those announced by local health departments or at various state pharmacies.
Monday’s announcement was made because the first doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine were expected to arrive in Utah this week. The Utah Department of Health expected to receive 122,000 total doses of the first and second vaccine this week, adding doses from the new drug manufacturer.
Local health departments, combined, are able to vaccinate just over 120,000 people a week, Hudachko said. This is currently a mixture of people receiving the first or second dose of vaccine. The weekly allowance is now at that maximum.
With many more doses of the vaccine coming this month, state health department leaders knew they would have to expand vaccination services. Therefore, they sought the help of health care providers, especially since all three had already taken care of Utahns aged 16 to 65, with pre-existing health conditions, who were recently eligible to receive the vaccine.
“We always intended to be extra active once we exceeded the capacity of local health departments to administer vaccines,” Hudachko said.
Officials from all three health care providers unveiled their vaccination plans on Monday.
Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain has announced seven locations where Utahns who qualify to receive the vaccine can schedule a vaccination meeting. Are:
- Logan Regional Hospital (500 E. 1400 North)
- McKay-Dee Hospital (4401 S. Harrison Blvd. in Ogden)
- Park City Hospital (900 Round Valley Drive)
- Riverton Hospital (3741 W. 12600 South)
- St. Regional Medical Center George (1380 E. Medical Center Drive)
- Orthopedic Hospital (TOSH) (5848 S. 300 east of Murray)
- Utah Valley Hospital (1034 N. 500 West in Provo)
All seven locations will offer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week, said Dr. Kristin Dascomb, medical director of infection prevention for employees’ health for Intermountain Healthcare. The Utah Valley Hospital will also offer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“We try to distribute as much as possible,” she said.
Anyone eligible for the vaccine can make an appointment by accessing the Intermountain website. Anyone with questions is encouraged to call 887-777-7061.
Nomi Health
Nomi Health has reached an agreement with the Larry H. Miller Group to own vaccination clinics at Megaplex Theaters in parts of Utah.
Their operating clinics include Megaplex locations in:
- Lehi, Utah County: 2935 N. Thanksgiving
- Vineyard, Utah County: 600 N. Mill Road
- West Valley City, Salt Lake County: 3601 S. 2400 West
- South Jordan, Salt Lake County: 3761 W. Parkway Plaza Drive
Dr. June Steely, medical director for Nomi Health, said the organization plans to add a location in Centerville starting Thursday and more locations closer to Logan next week. Possible new locations are possible later for places in southern Utah.
“Some of them the observation period is in the theater itself, and others are more in the lobby or in a ballroom,” she said.
Nomi Health also has the ability to own “pop-up clinics” with the ability to distribute 250 vaccines a day through the method, she said. These locations will be established through agreements with the county health departments.
Nomi currently has the capacity to vaccinate up to 2,000 Utahns a day or 12,000 each week. Steely said the organization is working to expand that number in the coming weeks.
People who qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine can register to get one from Nomi Health through a state-created website. Anyone who needs help registering online can call 801-704-5911, Steely added.
U. of Utah Health
Currently, the University of Utah Health can vaccinate people in two locations:
- University of Utah Hospital on the Salt Lake City University campus
- Redwood Health Center at 1525 W. 2100 South in Salt Lake City
The organization plans to expand the locations to Farmington, South Jordan and Sugar House health centers next week, according to Dr. Richard Orlandi, chief medical officer at Ambulatory Health at the University of Utah.
He said the supplier was given 2,340 for this week; The number is expected to reach 5,340 by next week before distribution “continues to grow” in the coming weeks.
“I think many of us in this partnership have additional capabilities beyond what we currently receive,” he added. “This is true for the state in general. We use everything we receive as a state.”
Anyone who qualifies to receive the vaccine based on medical records should have received an invitation to set up an appointment on their MyChart account. The health care provider also tried to extend invitations via email, text messages and phone calls, Orlandi said.
“One stop shop”
State officials said they have set up a “one-stop shop” website dedicated to all types of vaccine information, including links to where Utahs who qualify for the vaccine can register to receive it.
Thirteen local health departments and nine different retail pharmacies have already offered vaccinations before the three new partners were announced on Monday. All partners are allowed to use systems they are familiar with instead of having a uniform plan that everyone should adopt, Hudachko said.
“There will be some confusion because there is no single source, but we believe it is outweighed by the efficiency gained by allowing these systems to use their existing registration sites,” he said.
An increase in supply
The state learns every Tuesday what the future allocations will be; The state health department expects to see their allocation of Modern primary vaccines double by next week and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to “more than double” as both drug manufacturers have increased their supply, Hudachko said.
Hudachko explained that the state’s weekly vaccination is based on its share in the adult population compared to other states in the country. Utah’s younger general population is why the state continues to decline in the number of vaccines given compared to other places in the United States.
For example, NPR’s COVID-19 vaccine tracker listed Utah as the 49th most vaccinated population in the country on Monday, even though it was ninth in the United States in terms of the percentage of vaccine used. States with larger adult populations receive more doses of vaccine.
“The federal government takes a state’s share of the total adult population in the United States and allocates the state vaccine based on that fact,” Hudachko said. “In Utah, we have about 0.84% of the total adult population in the US … so Utah gets about 0.84% that are available nationwide.”
Once received, doses are distributed to local health departments in a similar way. Counties with more adults receive more doses of vaccine. It is broken down even on a smaller scale to determine how many vaccines a provider will receive.
The recent increase has nothing to do with the fact that the state has opened up eligibility for people with health conditions that lead to higher risks for severe COVID-19 infections.
“Pfizer and Moderna are really growing their production,” Hudachko said.
This sharp increase necessitated the expansion of vaccination services earlier.