Errors in hospital vaccine distribution will lead to over 350 individuals receiving doses they were not selected to receive

photo by: Lauren Fox

LMH Health vaccinated residents aged 65 and older on Jan. 26 during its first Phase 2 vaccine clinic.

LMH Health started its first Phase 2 vaccination clinic on Tuesday knowing 1,300 people had been randomly selected to receive a dose. The local hospital just didn’t know who those people were.

And as it turns out, not all the people who showed up that day or who had scheduled appointments for the following days were included on the list. It is an error that will result in about 380 additional people receiving the vaccine, hospital spokesperson Rebecca Smith said.

Residents ages 65 and older who were randomly selected to receive a vaccine from the hospital this week were given a number to call to schedule an appointment. Smith said the hospital recognized there was an error shortly after the start of the clinic Tuesday at 1 p.m., because though only 1,300 people were given the phone number, the hospital received more than 7,000 calls about the vaccine that day.

Smith said that when the hospital later received the list of the 1,300 people who had been randomly selected from the health department, they determined that some appointments had been booked by people who were not on the list. Smith said she doesn’t believe it was anyone’s “ill intent” to sign up in error, but that there could have been “a misunderstanding about who was able to sign up.” An example of an error, Smith said, was that one citizen booked their spouse in addition to booking themselves.

Despite the error, Smith said the hospital’s main goal is to ensure the 1,300 people who were selected to receive the vaccine actually get it. She said they are communicating with their local partners that they will need additional vaccines, and that some might be available from Phase 1 allocations that have not yet been used.

When asked if the hospital is canceling the appointments of people who scheduled them in error, Smith said they are not, and that the hospital plans to finish out all the vaccinations they had scheduled. LMH Health anticipates that 380 additional people will be getting vaccinated — Smith noted that could be a high estimate — meaning around 1,680 people could be vaccinated overall.

Smith said the hospital and its Unified Command partners will learn from the experience.

“What we recognize is that there’s an opportunity to clarify making sure that the communications that go out to those selected are very clear,” she said.

Smith said the error was not for a lack of trying or preparation — “It’s just a matter of the complexity of the situation.”

She said when one thinks about 380 compared to the 30,000 to 40,000 doses the county estimates it will distribute in Phase 2, it’s a “relatively small glitch that we are going to work our way through.” But Smith also said the hospital does not want the error to negatively affect allocations for other groups in Phase 2.

In the hospital’s Wednesday update, Smith wrote that after the initial issues were addressed, the drive-thru clinic ran smoothly on Wednesday.

“We have learned a lot over the past day and a half, and we are grateful for the kindness you’ve shown as we navigate yet another entirely new process,” she wrote. “As promised, we’re doing our best to be agile, and we are taking into account your feedback along the way.”

Douglas County COVID-19 update

Douglas County reported 7,979 cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, an increase of 35 cases since Tuesday.

In Douglas County, 7,167 out of the 7,979 cases are inactive or beyond the infectious period, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, meaning 812 cases are active.

The county has averaged about 36 new cases per day over the last 14 days, according to a 14-day moving average graph updated weekdays by the health department. The current average of 36.29 new cases per day is down from a high of 68 cases per day in early January.

Douglas County has a 14-day COVID-19 incidence rate of 422.31 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 2.5%. Fifteen patients at Lawrence’s hospital had COVID-19 on Wednesday, the same number as Tuesday. To date, 36 Douglas County residents have died of COVID-19.

photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health

Jan. 27 COVID-19 update from the health department


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