DOH: Facilities engaging in ‘invitation-only’ vaccine clinics risk not receiving additional shipments

The Washington State Department of Health said it’s “dismayed” at reports of “invitation-only” vaccine clinics and that facilities or organizations engaging in the practice risk not receiving additional vaccine shipments.

“We do not condone this behavior, and we have never allowed it,” said DOH in a statement to KIRO 7, which followed a news release Friday from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan calling on state health officials to address the reports. “Since COVID-19 vaccine planning began, equity has been the primary focus of the state’s distribution effort, and to see such cavalier disregard for allocation strategy that prioritizes the most at-risk and disproportionately impacted populations is unacceptable.”

Durkan called on state health officials to reassess Washington’s vaccine distribution model following recent reports that hospital donors and board members were being given preferential vaccine access over the most vulnerable by major regional health care providers.

Citing reports from The Seattle Times, Durkan said that DOH should “explicitly prohibit the distribution of vaccine to financial donors or those with similar financial preferences.”

“Until a greater supply of vaccine is available, the state should immediately change allocations to prioritize community health care providers and to provide significantly increased allocations to entities like the City of Seattle dedicated to vaccinating the most impacted and vulnerable members of our community,” said Mayor Durkan in the statement.

KIRO 7 spoke to 72-year-old Jean Hughley of Everett on Friday, who said that despite having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, a kidney disease and asthma, she has not been able to secure an appoint locally to receive the vaccine.

“Impossible. I have been trying several sites and all they’re saying is ‘no available options yet’,” said Hughley, who told KIRO 7 she’s so vulnerable she fears she won’t survive if infected. “I’m almost positive that I would probably not make it.”

Hughley, who said she lives alone and only leaves home for medical appointments, is unable to drive and needs access to the vaccine locally.

“I’m frustrated,” she said. “It’s really difficult and I’m really concerned about it because of my high risk.”

About a week ago, Hughley said she asked her primary care doctor at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett for the vaccine but was told she’d have to wait.

“They’re selecting certain ones and they will contact us by MyChart, but (I’ve heard) nothing,” said Hughley.

The Seattle Times reported that Providence Regional Medical Center “offered on Jan. 25 an invite-only clinic for donors, board members and fundraising campaign volunteers,” while not providing access to the general public.

A hospital spokesperson did not immediately return KIRO 7′s request for comment Friday.

“I have to hold my breath. It’s not right,” said Hughley. “But that’s the way our world is.”

On Wednesday, Overlake Medical Center apologized after admitting to inviting eligible donors to get COVID-19 vaccines.

“Recently, in an effort to notify people of additional, immediate-term vaccine appointments that had become available, we sent emails to approximately 4,000 members of the Overlake community, including volunteers, retired nurses and physicians, all employees and about 100 donors from our Foundation database,” said the hospital system in an online statement. “We recognize we made a mistake by including a subset of our donors and by not adopting a broader outreach strategy to fill these appointments, and we apologize.”

The reports caught the attention of Gov. Jay Inslee, who addressed the concerns at a news conference.

“If in fact they were giving preference to some VIP list, that is not the way to do it: that’s not acceptable for us,” said Gov. Inslee. “We need to give everybody a fair shot at the vaccine.”

The full statement from the Washington State Department of Health to KIRO 7:

“The Washington State Department of Health stands with Gov. Inslee in being dismayed at reports of such egregiously inappropriate behavior regarding “invitation-only” vaccine clinics. We do not condone this behavior, and we have never allowed it. Since COVID-19 vaccine planning began, equity has been the primary focus of the state’s distribution effort, and to see such cavalier disregard for allocation strategy that prioritizes the most at-risk and disproportionately impacted populations is unacceptable. Plainly said, this kind of practice is inequitable, wrong, and must stop immediately. Facilities or organizations found to engage in this practice risk not receiving additional shipments of vaccines.

Furthermore, vaccine allocation was always going to expand beyond hospitals to allow more community access in ways that are culturally responsive and accessible. It made sense that, in the early weeks of vaccination, the majority of vaccine went to hospitals because we needed to reach the most at-risk workers in health care settings and protect our health care infrastructure.  Now, we are spreading limited vaccine among many more sites where people can get vaccinated, including pharmacies, community health centers, local public health, and mass vaccination sites. The bottom line is that the demand for vaccine greatly outpaces the amount of vaccine we have available. We can’t reach all providers.  For next week, we had requests for over 358,000 first doses, and our first-dose allocation was only 107,000 doses. This is why our message to and request of the people of Washington right now is patience — your turn is coming.

To the providers and health care workers working each and every day to get the people of Washington vaccinated, we offer a heartfelt thank you. The hours are long, the work is challenging, and the supply is not sufficient to meet needs, but the effort we’ve seen across the state to get people vaccinated, from small clinics to mass vaccination sites, has been inspiring. This is the Washington we know and the spirit we’ve come to count on — and the legacy we want to leave behind when COVID-19 is behind us.”

Cox Media Group