Patients with Marin Kaiser wait longer for COVID-19 vaccinations

Kaiser Permanente members in Marin County are dissatisfied with the pace with which they have been able to schedule vaccination schedules.

Matt Willis, public health officer for Marin County, said last week that although Marin’s public health and other county hospitals start vaccinating residents 65 and older on Monday, Kaiser will continue to vaccinate only residents with 75 or more by the end of February, at least.

Kaiser CEO Greg Adams acknowledged the problem and blamed the lack of vaccine.

“We have received inquiries about our preparation and heard your concerns about the limited number of vaccine markings available,” said Adams in an email sent to members last month.

Kaiser has the capacity and is prepared to administer more than 200,000 vaccines a week in California, he said.

He added, however, “We are currently receiving a total of approximately 40,000 doses of vaccine per week in California. “

On February 4, Kaiser sent an email message to members stating: “We continue to advocate for more doses of vaccine from the State of California and will expand eligible groups as soon as possible. If you can be vaccinated somewhere outside Kaiser Permanente, such as your employer, your local health department, or another approved vaccine location, we encourage you to do so. “

“My husband is 75 and we did not get a vaccination appointment with Kaiser,” said Shae Irving of Fairfax in an email.

Irving said his doctor Kaiser suggested they try to schedule an appointment at Marin’s mass public health vaccination post at the Civic Center, or failing that, seek a vaccination appointment in a neighboring county.

The county and Marin public health hospitals – the Kaiser San Rafael medical center, the MarinHealth Medical Center and the Novato Community Hospital, operated by Sutter Health – receive their own vaccine supply from the state.

Irving said her husband, Stewart Cubley, filled out an online application to receive the vaccine across the county, but, unlike others, got no response. The form included a question that “best describes you”, a Sutter Health member, a patient at the MarinHealth clinic, MediCal, none of the above and uninsured, or none of the above and uninsured.

Willis said the county is not excluding members of Kaiser. He said that, in fact, at least 30% of the people vaccinated at the county Civic Center site were members of Kaiser.

“Kaiser is moving as fast as possible and its schedule is full,” said Willis. “People will go wherever the vaccine is available.”

He added, however, “Ideally, because Kaiser receives its own allocation, we are encouraging Kaiser members to be vaccinated through Kaiser.

“Gatekeeping takes place on the website,” said Willis, “where we say that if you are a member of Kaiser, you should. It’s not mandatory; it is a duty. “

The county is reserving some of its vaccination appointments for Latino residents aged 75 and over, and other residents aged 75 and over who have medical conditions that put them at greater risk.

A disproportionate number of Latino residents in Marin contracted COVID-19, although mortality rates in the Latin community due to the coronavirus are slightly less than 16% of the population they represent.

Willis said that more than half of Marin’s population, about 130,000 people, are members of the Kaiser. He said, however, that the state’s allocation of vaccines to Kaiser does not reflect this.

“It is a smaller allocation than would be needed to track the rest of the county,” said Willis. “This is one of the reasons why we are not preventing Kaiser members from being vaccinated with Marin doses of public health.”