H1N1 vaccine info from health department

October 28, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD 

The Oregon State Health Department released a newsletter update this week with a description of the current situation. It provides a nice summary of where things are at right now. Our clinic has not yet received more doses for H1N1 Influenza. We will post updates as soon as we do.

We realize that demand will continue to exceed supply of the vaccine so we are looking to improve how we distribute vaccine at our walk-in clinics. We still believe that walk-in clinic on a first come-first serve basis is the quickest way to distribute vaccine. To decrease frustration and waiting time we will distribute tickets as people arrive with number matched to available vaccine that day. We hope this will decrease frustration and waiting times for our patients.

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6 Responses to “H1N1 vaccine info from health department”

  1. Chelsea Davis on October 28th, 2009 10:38 am

    That is a terrific idea of tickets for shots. I was thinking that was what should have happened on Saturday as I waited in line for an hour only to find when we were almost there that you were out of shot and I opted out of nasal. Thank you for improving the wait, I really appreciate it!

  2. Kenneth Carlson, MD on October 28th, 2009 10:57 am

    The suggestion did come from a parent. We were also reminded of how Apple handled early iPhone distribution when supplies where limited.

  3. Jennifer Scholes on October 28th, 2009 4:21 pm

    Great idea. I suggest sorting the ticket distribution so that those children who can not have the nasal option because of asthma can be assured of the traditional option, assuming we are early enough in line to get a ticket. (Would hate to wait in line only to find out the only option is nasal.)

  4. Kenneth Carlson, MD on October 28th, 2009 4:24 pm

    Agree. So far the nasal influenza vaccine has been in greater supply than injectable so we have been encouraging nasal vaccine for those patients over age 2 and without history of asthma. This would of course be modified depending on available inventory of future vaccine.

  5. Justine on November 3rd, 2009 9:50 am

    For the flu shot clinics is it ok for one parent to wait in line early and the other to bring the kids before the clinic opens? I have a 4 and 2 year old and It is hard for them to wait for 1-2 hours in line. I want to be fair but also make this as easy as possible for them.

  6. Kenneth Carlson, MD on November 3rd, 2009 12:19 pm

    The plan is to handout “tickets” between 8:30 and 9:00. Patients need to be present to get a ticket. We will only hand out tickets to match our inventory. We anticipate having about 200-300 injectable doses available. This can be given to all patients over 6 months old. Only contraindication is prior allergy to vaccine and prior allergy to egg.

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