A Kansas hospital was forced to throw away nearly 600 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week due to a “process error”, health officials said on Thursday.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital said it received 570 doses of the Johnson-Johnson vaccine from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health on Wednesday. Doses are usually administered frozen – so they can be placed in a freezer at the hospital until they are ready for distribution.
The Lawrence, Kansas hospital, in a statement, said it followed this procedure, “without realizing that they were already defrosted”.
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Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine vials at the National Jewish Hospital pharmacy for distribution in eastern Denver on March 6, 2021. (Associated Press)
“When we found out that the vaccines were delivered to the hospital refrigerated, LMH Health immediately approached Johnson & Johnson for guidance,” said Brian Bradfield, associate vice president of auxiliary services at LMH Health. “The company has warned that these doses will have to be discarded.”
LMH Health President and CEO Russ Johnson said that a vaccination team aims to quickly review and refine its vaccine residue prevention processes. He says that these processes “failed in this case” and that the team is working to prevent future errors.
“Although this is a small percentage of the total vaccines the county has received, we know that it is not insignificant – this is a heart-wrenching situation for our hospital, our Phase 2 community members and our Unified Command partners,” said Johnson.
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“We owe it to our community and to the many volunteers and staff who put their hearts into the vaccination effort to see this in a way that is efficient and effective,” he continued. “We have had an almost perfect process so far and we are going to determine where our processes have failed and fix them.”
Bradfield said Johnson & Johnson asked the hospital to contact McKesson, a healthcare company that oversees distribution, according to the statement.
“McKesson referred us to our state and local health department to coordinate replacement doses,” he said.
LMH Health and LDCPH were working to reschedule vaccination appointments for people affected by the error, FOX 4 of Kansas City, Missouri reported.
In January, nearly 2,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Boston after a contractor accidentally turned off a freezer, according to hospital officials.
In Wisconsin, a pharmacist agreed to plead guilty to federal charges after authorities said he deliberately destroyed hundreds of doses by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
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President Biden announced in a speech to the nation on Thursday that he was directing states, tribes and territories to ensure that all US adults would become eligible for vaccination by May 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report