[ad_1]
Hospitals have come under heavy criticism for their role in the chaotic rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Indeed, in the rush to get the vaccine out quickly, many hospitals received more vaccines than expected and fewer employees took it than expected. As a result, hospitals have built up a surplus of vaccines and offered it to their low-risk graduate students and young administrative staff working from home and are now scrambling to figure out what to do with the rest. The answer should be simple: Give it to older members of your community, but a recent letter from the American Hospital Association cited a number of significant barriers to effective vaccine distribution, including a lack of coordination and coordination. guidance from federal, state and local governments.
Trying to figure out how best to manage their excess vaccine, some hospitals have called their state’s health department to be told to just keep the supply. Most states do not want to deal with the logistical complexity of transferring the supply, and even worse, many hospitals are now concerned about the negative repercussions states will have if they denounce their advice. Some hospitals even fear that if they do not use up their reserve of vaccines, they will not receive more. These little games hurt everyday Americans, some of whom are sitting ducks in this war on the virus.
Numerous solutions have been proposed, in particular lotteries or one-off strategies for distributing all the vaccine doses available. Biden’s inbound administration has also supported efforts to get the vaccine through as quickly as possible, but there are obstacles at all levels. So what must be done to achieve the goal of vaccinating millions of Americans as soon as possible? Here are some steps to take now:
1. Ignore complicated guidelines and just immunize the elderly
Confusion over the complicated prioritization of immunization priority groups puts hospitals in decision-making paralysis. A simple age-based allocation strategy is easy to understand and would result in much faster vaccine rollout. Hospitals should be allowed to bypass complicated CDC, state and local government guidelines, and immediately offer their surplus vaccines to the oldest and most vulnerable in the community. In fact, many hospitals have a process in place to deliver the flu shot every year to every clinic and hospital patient.
2. States must stand aside
States in which a nurse must administer the vaccine should immediately change it to any healthcare professional. Pharmacists, medical assistants and other health workers should be allowed to immunize people.
Some states are wasting too much time wondering whether community vaccinations are best done in pharmacies and grocery stores rather than in hospitals. Pharmacies and grocery stores are the ideal setting given their extensive experience in community mass vaccinations. But in the meantime, hospitals should act on their surplus vaccines and distribute it wisely. Hospitals should mobilize and show leadership in helping the most vulnerable members of their communities.
3. Use Big Data
Hospitals and health systems have data on the most vulnerable people through their electronic health record infrastructure. They should harness the power of big data to find those whose age and co-morbidities put them at the greatest risk of death. The case fatality rate of COVID-19 ranges from 0.001% to 20%. Finding those most at risk of death from COVID-19 is a difficult challenge for pharmacies and grocery stores, but hospitals are well positioned to solve it. Just as hospitals individually reach out to people in their data at the time of their mammograms, colonoscopies, or other health exams, hospitals can also help identify those most at risk and hard to reach. .
4. Treat vaccine deserts
Regional hospitals should redistribute vaccine doses to eliminate these geographic and socio-economic disparities in health care. As the vaccines were in the process of being rolled out, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Vaccine Prioritization and other similar groups met to consider how best to allocate the vaccine. Unfortunately, the recommendations were issued late (weeks after the initial FDA clearings were granted), after trucks were loaded with vaccine doses and hospitals secured freezers for storage. This belated focus encouraged procrastination by hospitals because their plan was “Well, let’s wait and see what the states say” and the states said “Well, let’s wait and see what the CDC says.” States and the CDC have had nine months to develop an allocation strategy. Tragically, mired in bureaucracy, the government was two weeks behind the party planning the vaccine allocation.
Not only were the formal guidelines late, they were flawed. First, he failed to stratify America’s 23 million healthcare workers and instead put someone like a 34-year-old healthy dermatologist specializing in Botox into the same priority group as a healthcare nurse. intensive 64-year-old with diabetes and asthma. Algorithms that tried to accurately identify priority groups backfired, leaving community providers and some private clinicians in the dark. The chaos of infighting along with the continuing stories of wealthy board members and spouses of hospital administrators gaining access before others have resulted in vaccination deserts (mostly rural areas where the vaccine is is not available or not very available for the first priority groups). A country club in Texas even announced its vaccine registration for club members on January 11, 2021.
5. Show leadership now
Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries in the world, with incredible oversight and bureaucracy. As a result, many hospital leaders have been too reluctant to question directions or challenge authority, but with cases and deaths soaring and a depleted workforce, now is the time to think. boldly and disruptive ideas. We hope that the leaders of our hospitals will take action during this difficult time. We need bold leadership to replace the timid approach many hospitals take to follow the government’s wrong directions. Hospitals should lead, not follow.
Governments and the medical community are known for their nuanced debates. But to correct the current debacle of vaccine rollout in the country, let’s stop discussing the ideal philosophy and be realistic. Hospitals need to show leadership by quickly developing a pragmatic plan B strategy that works. We need to focus on getting the vaccine quickly to the elderly at risk, starting with the older members of our community – a simple strategy that would save as many American lives as possible.
The opinions of each author do not represent the views of any organization or institution.
[ad_2]
Source link