Hospitals and medical providers in Houston began vaccinating elderly patients this week, as the public vaccination campaign extends to frontline workers for the first time.
About 3,000 people aged 75 and over are scheduled to receive their first vaccines this week at the Methodist Hospital. Memorial Hermann has programmed about 5,000 patients from its medical group, who are at least 65 years old. CVS started an effort aimed at long-term care facilities on Monday, with the hope of eventually vaccinating 275,000 patients.
Each of these providers began vaccinating residents this week, while similar plans are underway – though not so far – at MD Anderson, Baylor College of Medicine and Harris Health, among others. They all continue to vaccinate frontline workers as well.
“Many of us are running these campaigns side by side,” said Roberta Schwartz, Methodist executive vice president. “What we found is that we can maximize the number of people who pass by rotating them side by side.”
The expansions mark the region’s entry into the next phase of the state’s vaccination plan. The first, Phase 1A, prioritized frontline workers in hospitals, emergency medical technicians, school nurses and others. Phase 1B includes elderly people over 65 and others over 16 with certain high-risk medical conditions. They include cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, heart disease, solid organ transplantation, obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The Texas Department of Health Services, which is managing the distribution, remains in Phase 1A, but has instructed providers to start moving towards new populations if they have reached all willing participants among frontline workers. . Even so, they need to reserve capacity for frontline workers as they go.
“Continue to prioritize Phase 1A with the people in that group present,” says the guide. “This will allow providers to prioritize properly and, at the same time, maximize the number of people vaccinated.”
The group of elderly and people with high-risk conditions is responsible for about 8 million people across the state, according to city health officials, which represents a huge logistical obstacle for the big providers who are trying to distribute potentially saving vaccines. It involves collecting lists of eligible patients from different departments and designing systems to contact them, while balancing these systems with the current vaccine supplies and staff needed to apply it. The need for a second injection about 30 days later complicates scheduling efforts.
“None of us are prepared to do mass vaccinations. We don’t have these big open stadiums where we can bring 50,000 people and vaccinate them all at once, ”said Dr. James McCarthy, chief physician at Memorial Hermann.
This hospital has more than 400,000 patients who would qualify in the category over 65. He began to reach a small group of patients seeking primary care at Memorial Hermann Medical Group. It is a pool of about 70,000 people, McCarthy said, and they reached capacity before contacting everyone.
“It’s very exciting, but we’re just putting our toes in the water. It’s the tip of the iceberg, ”said McCarthy. “It will take time.”
Overlap is also likely. People who see a doctor at Memorial Hermann and another at Methodist can receive two notifications. Schwartz and McCarthy advised these people to go in wherever they could and to cancel pending appointments if given a chance elsewhere.
“Anywhere you can book, book it,” said McCarthy.
Although the state agency recommends that residents look to their providers to see if they are eligible, Methodist and Memorial Hermann officials said these calls are overloading their systems. Both have created outreach strategies that mean that eligible patients will receive news from the hospital, not the other way around.
Methodist will continue to send text messages or voicemail to people who qualify in the coming weeks. Schwartz said they are working with a group of 120,000 patients over 75 and plan to contact all of them. She said the hospital will move on to its next groups, people aged 65 and over and adults with certain health conditions, in the coming weeks.
CVS and Walgreens are also involved in distribution, according to the state’s database of suppliers. They received large shipments to focus on qualified, long-term nursing facilities, said Schwartz.
CVS said it launched its long-term care facility program on December 28 at more than 2,000 facilities and expects to vaccinate 275,000 patients through the program.
HEB continues to focus on community health workers, the organization said.
The state said it expects the vaccine to be available to the general public in the spring, a timeline that Schwartz and McCarthy said will likely be met, as long as vaccine supplies are not exhausted.
About 146,988 people were partially vaccinated in Texas as of Monday, according to an analysis by the Houston Chronicle of state data.