State shot providers pared by two-thirds
Drugstores, doctors frustrated by plan
Hundreds of drugstores and small medical practices across Pennsylvania learned they will not be getting first-dose COVID19 vaccines — for now — as the Department of Health changes strategy in getting shots to as many people as possible.
Pharmacies and doctors received word of the new strategy that favors big hospitals and medical centers over smaller providers in an email Thursday from the state Department of Health, which said the state was instead turning to “providers who have demonstrated the ability to help us achieve our goal of getting as many individuals vaccinated as quickly and equitably as possible.”
The Allegheny County Health Department, for example, which is opening three more vaccination
sites before the end of the month — including one at Petersen Events Center in Oakland — will receive 7,340 doses of vaccine this week. Lehigh Valley Health Network in Lehigh County is getting 31,103 doses this week.
Geographic reach, ease of access for residents, demographic equity and estimated demand were among the factors the Health Department used to pick which providers will get vaccine, acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said Thursday during a briefing.
The policy shift, which comes as eligibility criteria for getting the shots expands, shrinks the number of vaccine providers in Pennsylvania by more than twothirds — from 780 sites in February to 234 on Thursday. Ms. Beam first announced the policy change in February.
Drugstores and doctors with patients awaiting second doses will receive them, the email said, but no more first doses should be scheduled there for now.
“As Pennsylvania’s supply from the federal government grows, we will look to expand allocations again and reactivate all providers back in the COVID-19 vaccine administration network,” the Department of Health’s email said. “Though we understand our individual provider’s frustrations, this temporary allocation change will help us administer between 750,000 and 1 million doses per week.”
Pushback to the new policy was swift, including from Hilltop Pharmacy in Allentown, which administered just under 12,000 shots since the vaccine became
available.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Hilltop manager Alexandria Lavella. “How did we get cut? It makes you wonder what the standards were. It’s not pretty. We’re all very deeply hurt.”
Ms. Lavella, father Patrick and mother Jill — all pharmacists — have vaccinated people at clinics Hilltop organized in Peters, with Ms. Lavella climbing into car backseats to vaccinate elderly people who were too ill or disabled to get out, she said. She has also visited the homebound to administer the vaccine.
Ms. Lavella received the email from the Health Department as Hilltop, in cooperation with two neighborhood community groups, was organizing a vaccine clinic just for people who lived nearby, often elderly or people unable to schedule appointments using the internet. Appointments for 50 people who’d signed up will have to be canceled, she said.
Jay Adzema, second-generation owner of Adzema Pharmacy in McCandless, was outraged by the Health Department direction. He’d given 600 shots to date, but
his first shipment in January was followed by two months of nothing.
“Pennsylvania government is not in the drug distribution business and has no business in it,” he said. “The common people are not being served. It’s very disgusting.”
HealthQuest Medical Associates, a small family
practice clinic, had asked the Health Department for 300 second doses for next week, family doctor Joe Calhoun said. Instead, the department shipped only 100 doses, “creating a ton of anxiety among doctors, staff and patients,” he said.
The medical practice had administered vaccine in a vacant third floor in the building where the practice is located in Richland, with help from local fire department volunteers HealthQuest was also notified that it wouldn’t be receiving any more first doses for now.
“When it runs, it runs super efficient,” he said about HealthQuest’s vaccination clinics, where about 300 doses have been given. “We can do a lot of people up there.”
But dealing with the state has been difficult, resulting in the vaccine rollout statewide “taking way longer than it should,” he said.
“It’s a giant fiasco and mess,” Dr. Calhoun said. “It’s very frustrating.”
In southeastern Pennsylvania on Thursday, a bipartisan group of state senators criticized Health Department plans to open a mass vaccination site to serve Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties instead of supporting existing, smaller vaccination sites, including five sites that are operated by Delaware County. In a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and other state officials, the group said the Health Department’s plan ignores existing resources.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel by creating a single mass vaccination site that will somehow serve 2.5 million residents across Southeastern Pennsylvania,” Sen. Timothy Kearney, D-Swarthmore, said in a statement. “Our counties have the infrastructure in place to get shots in arms — all they need is the supply.”
Brian Zidek, chair, Delaware County Council, said the state has asked the four so-called collar counties to come up with two sites for planned mass vaccination clinics. Unlike the Pittsburgh area, where the department is shifting vaccine away from smaller providers, pharmacies and medical clinics in the collar counties would not be receiving less vaccine when the big clinic opens in early April.
Still, Mr. Zidek said Delaware County, which runs its own registration system for the shots, already has the other resources needed to ramp up the number of shots if demand were not outstripping the amount of vaccine shipped to the county. For example, as of March 5, the county had received only 15,510 doses after requesting 31,710 doses.
The county has 190,000 people on its vaccine wait list, Mr. Zidek said, and a population of 560,000.
“We just want to partner with them,” he said. “Just give us the vaccine and let us do it. It makes absolutely no sense to us why they’re doing this.”