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The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) confirmed to the investigative unit on Wednesday that it had stopped allocating COVID-19 vaccines to One Medical, one of its main partners in the plan to deployment of city vaccines.
One Medical is a membership-based healthcare practice – anyone can join. After partnering with SFDPH, it began administering vaccines to its own eligible participants and to members of the public who were referred by the county as a temporary member of One Medical.
A San Francisco-based healthcare provider is accused of administering COVID-19 vaccines to people who should not have received them. Terry McSweeney reports.
In early February, SFDPH assigned One Medical 9,450 doses, according to county data.
Prior to receiving this information, the Investigation Unit received reports of people paying the standard $ 200 membership fee just to take advantage of One Medical’s easy-to-book vaccine appointment system. In some cases, individuals reported not living in San Francisco. Some said they already had other health care providers.
The San Francisco decision comes on the same day that NPR released an investigation that “the high-end medical supplier … was administering COVID-19 vaccines to people deemed ineligible … including people with ties to senior officials. company and clients of its medical concierge service.
In an email to the Investigation Unit, SFDPH said Monday it ordered One Medical to return 270 vials of the Pfizer vaccine containing 1,620 doses so that the county can redistribute them to other suppliers. This came after the county ordered One Medical to provide full accounting of its vaccines administered.
After reviewing One Medical’s response, the county said the organization had vaccinated people who were “under 65 years of age who self-identified as Phase 1a health workers, but were not IHSS agents, DPH referrals or One Medical employees. “
“Due to this and our inability to verify the 1a status of this cohort, DPH has stopped assigning doses to One Medical, ” wrote a county spokesperson.
In addition to vaccinating a group of ineligible and unverifiable patients, the county said One Medical is reserving 984 doses for walk-in visits and 636 doses for an “Oracle Park mass vaccination launch.” Neither has been authorized by the SFDPH.
Letter of February 22, 2021 from SFDPH to the management team of One Medical
In an interview earlier Wednesday about the challenges One Medical and other providers face when trying to enforce vaccine eligibility requirements, Chief Medical Officer Andrew Diamond said there were concerns about excessive application.
“There are a lot of people who are in dire need of immunization and really wouldn’t have the first idea of how to download something. [for verification] … And by being too focused on this requirement, we risk vaccinating far fewer people than we really need right now, ”said Dr Diamond.
In a statement Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for One Medical wrote: “Those we vaccinated in the unspecified ‘number’ of doses in question from SFDPH specifically certified that they were eligible health workers. We have had permission from SFDPH to vaccinate this group and have been transparent with SFDPH about our process and protocols for doing so.
A doctor was allowed to keep enough doses to provide a second injection for people who received their first dose, the county said. The SF-based provider said it hopes to continue offering immunization services.
Candice Nguyen is an investigative reporter with the NBC Bay Area Investigation Unit. Email him about this story or others at [email protected].
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