SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Department of Health officials announced on Monday that the agency is turning to three major health care providers to help expand the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in the state starting this week, before a leap in the vaccines distributed.
Intermountain Healthcare, Nomi Health and the University of Utah Health will help vaccinate Utahns under the state agreement. All three said on Monday that they already had operations set up and intended to expand operations in the coming weeks, before the state’s weekly vaccine distribution is expected to more than double the weekly totals of previous weeks.
“These partners will increase our reach across the state. They will be able to offer large-scale vaccination clinics in some areas where we currently cannot do this,” said Tom Hudachko, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health. “They have established relationships with many residents in the state who have underlying medical conditions, so we will be counting on them to help with these populations.”
Additional vaccine distribution
About 10% of the total population of the state received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the state health department. The partnerships announced on Monday will not replace existing vaccine distribution locations, such as those announced by local health departments or at various pharmacies across the state.
Monday’s announcement came when the first doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were due to arrive in Utah this week. The Utah Department of Health expects 122,000 first and second doses of vaccine to arrive this week, adding doses from the new drug maker.
Local health departments, combined, can vaccinate just over 120,000 people a week, Hudachko said. Currently, it is a mixture of people receiving the first or second dose of the vaccine. The weekly distribution is now at its maximum.
With many more doses of vaccine coming this month, state health department leaders knew they would need to expand vaccination services. That is why they asked for help from health professionals, especially since all three of them probably already cared for Utahns aged 16 to 65 with pre-existing health problems who recently became eligible to receive the vaccine.
“We always intend to activate once again that we have exceeded the capacity of local health departments to administer vaccines,” said Hudachko.
Officials from all three healthcare providers unveiled their vaccination plans on Monday.
Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain has announced seven locations where Utahns qualified to receive the vaccine can schedule a vaccination appointment. They are:
- Logan Regional Hospital (500 E. 1400 North)
- McKay-Dee Hospital (4401 S. Harrison Blvd. in Ogden)
- Park City Hospital (900 Round Valley Drive)
- Riverton Hospital (3741 W. 12600 South)
- St. George Regional Medical Center (1380 E. Medical Center Drive)
- Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) (5848 S. 300 East in Murray)
- Utah Valley Hospital (1034 N. 500 West in Provo)
All seven locations will offer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week, said Dr. Kristin Dascomb, medical director of infection prevention for the health of Intermountain Healthcare employees. Utah Valley Hospital will also supply the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“We want to distribute as much as possible,” she said.
Anyone eligible for the vaccine can make an appointment by visiting the Intermountain website. Anyone with questions is encouraged to call 887-777-7061.
Nomi Health
Nomi Health has reached an agreement with Larry H. Miller Group to maintain vaccination clinics at Megaplex theaters in parts of Utah.
Its operating clinics include Megaplex locations in:
- Lehi, Utah County: 2935 N. Thanksgiving Way
- Vineyard, Utah County: 600 N. Mill Road
- West Valley City, Salt Lake County: 3601 S. 2400 West
- South Jordan, Salt Lake County: 3761 W. Parkway Plaza Drive
Dr. June Steely, medical director of Nomi Health, said the organization plans to add a location in Centerville starting on Thursday and more locations near Logan next week. Potential new locations are possible later for places in southern Utah.
“Some of them the observation period is in the theater itself, and others is more in the lobby or in the ballroom,” she said.
Nomi Health also has the ability to maintain “instant clinics” with the capacity to distribute 250 vaccines a day using this method, she said. These locations will be determined through agreements with county health departments.
Nomi currently has the capacity to vaccinate up to 2,000 Utahns a day or 12,000 a week. Steely said the organization is working to expand that number in the coming weeks.
Utahns who qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine can register to obtain one from Nomi Health through a state-created Web page. Anyone who needs help registering online can call 801-704-5911, added Steely.
Utah USA Health
The University of Utah Health can currently vaccinate people in two locations:
- University of Utah Hospital on the University Campus in Salt Lake City
- Redwood Health Center at 1525 W. 2100 South in Salt Lake City
The organization plans to expand locations to health centers in Farmington, South Jordan and Sugar House next week, according to Dr. Richard Orlandi, medical director of Ambulatory Health at the University of Utah.
He said the provider received 2,340 for this week; that number is expected to jump to 5,340 next week, before “continuing to increase” the distribution in the following weeks.
“I think that many of us in this partnership have additional capacity beyond what we are currently receiving,” he added. “This is true for the state in general. We are using everything we obtain as a state.”
Anyone who is eligible to receive the vaccine based on medical records must have received an invitation to make an appointment in their MyChart account. The healthcare provider was also trying to extend e-mail invitations, text messages and phone calls, said Orlandi.
‘One-stop shop’
State officials said they had created a “one-stop-shop” website dedicated to all kinds of information about the vaccine, including links to where Utahns qualified for the vaccine can apply to receive it.
Thirteen local health departments and nine different retail pharmacies were already supplying vaccines before the announcement of the three new partners on Monday. All partners are allowed to use systems with which they are familiar, rather than having a uniform plan that everyone should adopt, Hudachko said.
“There will be some confusion potentially, since there is no single source, but we believe that this will be overcome by the efficiency achieved by allowing these systems to use their existing registration sites,” he said.
An increase in supply
The state learns every Tuesday what its next batches will be; the state health department expects to see its modern primary vaccine distribution double as early as next week and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to “more than double” because both drug manufacturers have increased their supply, Hudachko said.
Hudachko explained that the weekly distribution of vaccines in the state is based on its share of the adult population compared to other states in the country. Utah’s younger general population is why the state continues to have a low number of vaccines administered compared to other places in the U.S.
For example, NPR’s COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker on Monday listed Utah as 49th in the country in total vaccinated population, although it was ninth in the US in terms of the percentage of vaccine used. States with a larger adult population receive more doses of vaccine.
“The federal government takes the state’s share of the total US adult population and allocates the vaccine to the state based on that,” said Hudachko. “In Utah, we have about 0.84% of the total adult population in the US … so Utah receives about 0.84% that is available nationally.”
Once received, doses are distributed to local health departments in a similar manner. Municipalities with more adults receive more doses of the vaccine. It is divided on an even smaller scale to determine how many vaccines a provider will receive to administer.
The recent increase has little to do with the fact that the state has opened eligibility for people with health problems that result in increased risks of serious COVID-19 infections.
“Pfizer and Moderna are really increasing their production,” said Hudachko.
This sudden increase is what created the need to expand vaccination services earlier.