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A second Pennsylvania health care system admitted it administered the COVID-19 vaccine to family members of employees, but said it halted the program after discussions with the state Department of Health .
The University of Pennsylvania Health System said its Chester County hospital runs a “lottery scheme” for family members of employees who otherwise meet state eligibility requirements.
“Based on the advice from the Pennsylvania Department of Health on this this week, the Chester County Hospital has ended this practice,” said Patrick Norton, vice president of public affairs for Penn Medicine, in a written statement provided in response to requests from The Associated Press. .
The family members were chosen blindly. About 1,600 relatives of Chester County Hospital staff have been vaccinated through the lottery scheme, which was launched on January 22, Norton said on Friday.
“We continue our commitment to protect as many people as possible while following all applicable eligibility guidelines,” he said.
Earlier this week, another large health network, Geisinger, admitted that it allowed family members of employees to skip the COVID-19 vaccine line, holding three weekend clinics in which employees of Geisinger were allowed to bring up to two family members as long as they were eligible as part of the phased rollout of the vaccine by the state.
The state’s health department said this week that Geisinger should not have set aside the vaccine for relatives of employees and threatened to withhold the allocation of the first doses of vaccine to Geisinger.
“It’s a matter of fairness,” Lindsey Mauldin, the agency’s senior adviser on COVID-19 response, said on Friday.
She said the health ministry communicates with vaccine suppliers “every day to make sure people know clearly where we want them to be.”
Geisinger, who has facilities throughout central and northeastern Pennsylvania, insisted he was following state guidelines for vaccine eligibility.
Around 3,600 relatives of Geisinger employees have been vaccinated as part of the program. No additional vaccination clinics for family members of employees are planned.
Pennsylvania’s other major health networks said they had not set aside a vaccine for family members.
Demand for the vaccine statewide far exceeded the available supply from Pennsylvania, leading to people who could not get an appointment for the vaccine as well as experts in medical ethics to question the ownership of health networks giving special access to their loved ones.
More than 4 million Pennsylvania residents are currently eligible for the vaccine, including people aged 65 and older and younger people with high-risk health conditions. As of Thursday, nearly 1.6 million Pennsylvania residents had received at least one of two required doses.
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