Massachusetts Deputizes Dentists, Others to Help with Vaccinations
August 13th, 2009Via: Boston Globe:
Massachusetts health authorities took the unprecedented step yesterday of deputizing dentists, paramedics, and pharmacists to help administer vaccines against both the seasonal flu and the novel swine strain expected to make a return visit in the fall.
In another emergency measure, regulators directed hospitals and clinics to provide vaccine to all their workers and some volunteers, a move designed to keep the medical workforce robust and prevent doctors and nurses from making their patients sick.
The actions illustrated the intensifying sense of urgency as health authorities, hospital administrators, and clinic executives across the nation confront the prospect of providing hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine against not one but two deadly types of flu in the same season.
“It’s a huge burden of work; there’s no doubt about that,’’ said Dr. Jay Butler, director of the swine flu vaccine task force at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Massachusetts, disease specialists are expecting to provide up to 9 million flu inoculations within the next few months, three times as many as last flu season, because of the need to give two doses of swine flu vaccine.
In Boston, the city health agency plans to offer shots during the day, night, and weekend. There is a chance that retired health workers will be pressed into service to provide vaccinations to adults and children, with many patients needing three visits for all their inoculations.
Knowing they are in a race against viruses that emerge suddenly and spread swiftly, private medical practices are also bracing for an onslaught. At Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, part-time employees will be asked to work longer hours to deliver half-a-million vaccine doses so that doctors can focus on tending to the ill.
“It’s going to require all hands on deck,’’ said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the top disease tracker at the state Department of Public Health. “We have to get everybody who’s a target for vaccine vaccinated, and we have to get enough people to give the vaccine.’’
The campaigns carry a substantial price tag: The federal government is purchasing the nation’s entire allotment of vaccine against swine flu, known scientifically as H1N1, and has given Massachusetts $10.4 million to defray costs associated with vaccination drives and testing.
Dr. Marylou Buyse, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, said she expects insurers to cover the costs of administering both types of flu vaccine in traditional settings, such as hospitals and physician offices. Her group is reviewing whether those expenses will be covered when plan members get their shots at vaccination drives in schools, government clinics, and elsewhere.
The first truckloads of vaccine against seasonal flu are expected to rumble into Massachusetts later this month, and agencies such as the Boston Public Health Commission are developing major campaigns to persuade people to get shots and sprays that protect against the disease, which kills an average of 36,000 Americans each year. It is estimated that 90 percent of Massachusetts adults and children fall into categories recommended to receive seasonal flu vaccine.
