Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors will contemplate directing workers to create an urgency ordinance on Jan. 12 that will require massive well being care methods to supply a written plan and timeline for administering the COVID-19 vaccine to county residents. The administration and County Counsel would current the board with the ordinance on the Jan. 26 assembly.
The objective of the ordinance is to convey the county’s well being care sector, together with non-public hospitals and clinics, on board so officers have a complete view of what number of vaccines are being given out, to whom and when.
The ordinance would increase a Jan. 7 Public Health order that requires vaccination suppliers within the county to share info on an ongoing foundation and to arrange vaccination plans by Feb. 1.
Underneath the well being officer’s order, massive well being care methods should submit complete plans that embrace: how they intend to supply vaccines to all of their main care sufferers as they turn out to be eligible; how they may create vaccine-administration websites; communication plans to tell their sufferers when and the place they’ll obtain vaccines; the anticipated variety of vaccine appointments and a timeline for reaching the total vaccination of their sufferers and the way they may keep away from “losing” vaccine doses when there are usually not sufficient sufferers receiving them inside a delegated tier on any specific day.
Supervisor Joe Simitian, who chairs the board’s well being and hospital committee, and board President Cindy Chavez mentioned throughout a webinar on Monday that they wish to be certain the at present fragmented protocols for numerous well being sectors are introduced collectively.
The well being care entities could be required to share these plans with the Board of Supervisors and the general public. The plans would come with info on how individuals will discover out about their means to get vaccinated, and the way vaccines can be distributed. The medical amenities additionally would have contingency plans for sudden conditions, reminiscent of damaged freezers or further doses of thawed vaccines in order that they are often administered earlier than they expire.
Simitian and Chavez mentioned they’re additionally involved that many individuals may fall via the cracks even with the person well being suppliers’ plans. The urgency ordinance would come with necessities for plans associated to individuals who do not at present have a well being care supplier — the “lacking center,” Simitian mentioned.
The supervisors mentioned they wished to keep away from the issues they noticed with the COVID-19 testing, when there have been months of back-and-forth discussions that slowed down the ramp up.
Not all well being care suppliers approached the identical necessities equally, requiring a mandate from the board to check sufferers. Simitian mentioned he hopes the identical will not occur with the vaccines. In contrast to the testing, well being suppliers are used to giving vaccinations as a part of their general mission; they did not all the time see testing as a part of their tasks, he mentioned.
“Given the dire state of the pandemic and the hope for vaccination, our well being care methods can not afford to repeat these patterns. We acknowledge that enormous well being care methods may play a good higher position in vaccine distribution, and detailed plans and timelines which might be public and coordinated can cut back confusion, instill confidence and, most significantly, get the job performed in a well timed, honest, environment friendly, and life-saving trend,” Simitian and Chavez mentioned in a joint proposal to the board.
“We won’t afford to lose a month; we will not afford to lose per week; we will not afford to lose a single day,” Simitian added on Monday.
With out coordination and monitoring, the state’s present patchwork system creates potential disparities within the high quality and amount of data supplied to the general public and dangers inconsistent or incomplete rollout of vaccinations, the supervisors mentioned
Entities with a nexus in a number of counties, reminiscent of Kaiser Permanente and Palo Alto Medical Basis, for instance, obtain their vaccine allotments immediately from the state; hospitals within the Veterans Affairs Well being Care System obtain the vaccines via the federal provide chain; CVS and Walgreens drug shops administer the vaccines at expert nursing and long-term care amenities for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention; and personal and nonprofit suppliers, reminiscent of Stanford Well being Care and El Camino Well being, obtain their vaccines from the county.
“We want a really rigorous framework so individuals know when it is their flip to get vaccinated,” Chavez mentioned.
Simitian famous that the state’s seven phases and tiers for rolling out the vaccine have additionally created challenges. “Individuals shouldn’t be ready for the final individual in a tier” to start out receiving their vaccine, he mentioned.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned the state is addressing a few of these issues, noting that state well being leaders are working to broaden the pool of recipients and the tiers in order that there can be a smoother and extra fast rollout. The state expects to succeed in its 10-day objective of 1 million administered vaccines by this weekend, he mentioned.
The state and the county are additionally organising extra mass testing websites. Santa Clara County has a website on the county fairgrounds and has had various affords, together with from Levi Stadium, to arrange extra, Chavez mentioned.
