As Walgreens lags on vaccinations, Maine shifts doses to independent pharmacies

Chris Guido, pharmacist at Gorham Community Pharmacy, says about 10 people a day get vaccinated at the store. The pharmacy received its last shipment, of 600 doses, earlier this week. Derek Davis / Staff Photographer

Walgreens has only completed 25% of its COVID-19 vaccination clinics in long-term care facilities in Maine, and its performance is part of what prompts the state to shift vaccine doses from national chains towards independent pharmacies as they play a more important role in the management of vaccination clinics.

For the third week in a row, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention gave independent pharmacies thousands of doses, while Walgreens and CVS received no new doses on Thursday. However, the two chains continue to run vaccination clinics in Maine with doses they had previously received.

Walgreens and CVS signed a contract with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to run vaccination clinics at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in 49 states, with only West Virginia withdrawing. But the Maine CDC has the power to distribute the doses it receives from the federal government in a way that it says will get people hit in the arms the fastest.

The agency did this by shifting the doses and not assigning doses to Walgreens or CVS for the past three weeks, while also giving more doses to independent pharmacies.

While Walgreens had managed all of its 40 nursing home clinics as of Jan. 25 – the latest data available on its website – it had only completed 16% of the other 189 long-term care clinics that she had been appointed to administer. On Thursday evening, a Walgreens spokesperson said the percentage had risen to 25% through January 26.

In most states, Walgreens has performed at least 50% of vaccinations at its long-term care clinics, and in 18 states, it has completed more than 70% of its clinics. In just two states, the percentage of clinics completed in long-term care facilities was lower than in Maine, Wisconsin at 10% and Maryland at 9%, according to data released by Walgreens on its website.

Campbell O’Connor, a spokesperson for Walgreens, declined interview requests and did not respond to emailed questions about why the percentage of completed clinics was so low in Maine. But he said in an email response to questions that clinics are said to be growing, with 55 clinics slated for over the next week.

“We will complete first dose vaccinations at assisted living centers and other long-term care facilities that have selected Walgreens as their vaccine supplier by mid-February,” O’Connor said in an email response. to the questions.

CVS performed much better, having completed all 38 nursing homes and 90 percent of the 170 long-term facilities on its list of clinics. Walgreens operates 79 stores in Maine, while CVS has 25, according to their websites.

Chris Guido is working at the Gorham Community Pharmacy Thursday. Amelia Arnold, pharmacy operations manager for Community Pharmacy, which has nine locations in Maine, said that one of the keys to an effective immunization program is to match orders with what pharmacies can realistically administer. In a week. Derek Davis / Staff Photographer

Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said in an interview with the Press Herald this week that while Walgreens ran its immunization clinics too slowly at first, the drugstore chain has performed much better in recent weeks.

Shah said one of the logistical issues with Walgreens was a dose mismatch, explaining that Walgreens would take more doses than needed in a clinic. The doses weren’t wasted, but it meant they sat on the shelf longer. He said a few weeks ago he asked Walgreens some “tough questions” – including why they weren’t scheduling vaccination clinics fast enough – and they’ve since improved their performance.

“Is the program moving as fast as anyone would like it to be?” No, but I asked them to do better and they did it, ”Shah said.

This month, the Maine CDC transferred a total of 2,925 doses originally designated for Walgreens to independent pharmacies and two hospitals in Lewiston – Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center. Shah said that overall CVS has done a better job than Walgreens.

He said independent pharmacies are a positive and the state has given more vaccines in recent weeks to those pharmacies to run clinics in long-term care facilities. These facilities include collective care centers, such as privacy centers for the elderly who do not need care at retirement homes, palliative care centers and group homes for the elderly. adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

“Independent pharmacies do an exceptional job. I only have congratulations for them, ”Shah said. “Independent pharmacies have never let the ball go.

In the first two weeks of Maine’s vaccination program, the 10,525 doses scheduled for pharmacies went to CVS and Walgreens. But since the beginning of January, the role of independent pharmacies has increased, from 1,200 doses in the third week of the program to 2,900 doses in the seventh week and 2,800 doses next week, the eighth week since the start of vaccinations. CVS and Walgreens have received a total of 27,100 doses – but none in the past three weeks – while independent pharmacies have received a total of 13,600 doses.

The state says it hasn’t administered doses to the two big chains in three weeks because they have enough on hand.

Amelia Arnold, pharmacy operations manager at Community Pharmacy, which has nine branches across the state, said one of the keys to an effective immunization program is to match orders with what pharmacies can accomplish. realistically within a week. Doses of the vaccine arrive on Monday, usually a few hundred a week, but a total of 900 this week. Community Pharmacy operates clinics Tuesday through Friday to use up any doses it receives from the Maine CDC that week.

“We are working hard to order only the vaccines we need,” said Arnold. “The last thing we want to do is have some unused doses in the freezer.”

Arnold said Community Pharmacy had increased its orders, but made sure to grow its operations in a sustainable manner, with enough staff to run the clinics effectively.

Courtney Oland, president and owner of Guardian Pharmacy in Brunswick, said joining the Maine CDC vaccination program was a natural fit for them as Guardian Pharmacy already serves people in long-term care. The Guardian Pharmacy hosted a drive-thru clinic for adults with developmental disabilities this week in Brunswick and has been running clinics statewide since the end of December, she said. Guardian Pharmacy received 800 doses from the Maine CDC this week.

Independent pharmacies have personal ties to long-term care centers that cannot be matched by national drugstore chains, Oland said.

“We have information about this world that the big suppliers don’t have. It is our customers and our employees that we take care of, ”she said. “We felt it was our responsibility to do whatever we can to help. We raised our hands and wanted to be a part of it.

Oland said staff members prepared by running mock clinics at Guardian in the months leading up to the start of the program. They learned a lot along the way and changed their practices to run an efficient operation.

For example, if they run a clinic at a privacy center, they make sure clients know to wear clothes where the sleeve can be easily moved along the arm, so that vaccinators and clients do not struggle with heavy clothing before hitting the arm. They also put red and green cards on a table – green meaning the immunization line is open and red meaning clients the line is closed – so people don’t get in the wrong row.

Across Maine, the state administered 128,704 doses of the vaccine, including 97,033 first doses and 31,648 second doses.

West Virginia is one of the states that consistently ranks at the top when it comes to how quickly they receive gunfire, and officials there have credited with withdrawing from the CVS / Walgreens partnership. The only state to do so, West Virginia relied entirely on independent pharmacies to run clinics in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. State officials have said in reports that they have many independent pharmacies capable of handling the program, while other states have more chain pharmacies.

West Virginia has the second-highest vaccination rate in the country, behind only Alaska, according to the Bloomberg News vaccine tracker. West Virginia administered 12.03 doses per 100 people as of Wednesday, compared to 9.02 percent in Maine, which has the eighth highest rate in the country. The national average rate is 7.8 doses per 100 people.

Shah said that while he knows many are comparing Maine and other states to see how the vaccine rollout is going, the vaccination program is still in its early stages.

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