H1N1 Vaccine not available for Saturday clinic (10/31)
October 29, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
We have not received any doses of H1N1 influenza vaccine this week and thus have no vaccine available for Saturday walk-in clinic. We are being told to expect 300 doses of injectable vaccine next week. We will post updates as soon as we have confirmed we will have vaccine for next week.
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.
Please continue to use the comment section on our news posts, contact form and our secure portal for continued communication and feedback to us.
External Links:
- Oregon State H1N1 Information page
- Recent newsletter
- Sign up for weekly updates from health department regarding vaccine availability
H1N1 Vaccine temporarily not available (10/24/2009)
October 24, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
As anticipated the demand at our Saturday walk-in clinic exceeded the available supply we received from the health department. We don’t have the final tally but we anticipate over 300 patients received a vaccine today. This is the most our clinic has administered in one day.
We apologize to those families who came and were not able to receive vaccine due to the recommended form of the vaccine running out. We are in the same situation as the rest of the country, dependent on vaccine manufacturers and the health department distribution getting vaccine to us. We have been successful in promptly administering vaccine to our patients once we have received doses. We are not rationing or saving vaccine at this time. Our goal is to not have vaccine sitting in our fridge as long as demand for the vaccine continues. Please be assured we requested about 13,000 total doses of seasonal influenza vaccine and H1N1 vaccine. For comparison we administered about 4200 seasonal influenza vaccine doses last year. In other words we have done our best to anticipate increased demand and significantly increased our orders for both seasonal influenza and H1N1 influenza vaccines.
We thank our families for their patience and promise we will continue to work to get as many doses as we are allocated and administer them promptly to our patients. Since this information is changing daily we will post to website when we have confirmed information regarding vaccine availability. Also follow us on twitter for the latest updates. Our plan is to be as transparent about this process as we can.
Vaccine will be available for 10/24 walk-in clinic
October 22, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
We are happy to announce we have received about 300 H1N1 vaccines (combination of nasal and injectable). H1N1 vaccines are currently available for all children over 6 months old. We anticipate strong demand this Saturday so we apologize in advance if we are unable to meet demand. We are not restricting vaccine to high risk patients as all children under 24 years old are in a high risk group. We anticipate receiving a batch of H1N1 vaccine each week for next several weeks so more is coming. Clinic begins 9am and will go until 12noon.
We also received a surprise shipment of about 200 seasonal injectable vaccine for kids age 6 to 36 months old. We do not currently have seasonal influenza vaccine available for older kids (injectable or nasal).
Estamos contentos de anunciar que hemos recibido alrededor de 300 vacunas contra la gripe H1N1 (combinacion de nasal e inyectable). Vacunas H1N1 estan disponibles actualmente para todos los niños mayores de 6 meses de edad. Prevemos una fuerte demanda de este sabado, asi que disculpas de antemano si no somos capaces de satisfacer la demanda. No estamos restringiendo la vacuna a los pacientes de alto riesgo que todos los ninos menores de 24 anos de edad estan en un grupo de alto riesgo. Nos esperan recibir un lote de vacuna H1N1 a la semana de la proxima varias semanas para que mas se acerca.
Tambien recibio un envio sorpresa de cerca de 200 vacuna inyectable de temporada para los ninos de 6 a 36 meses de edad. Actualmente no se vacuna contra la gripe estacional para los ninos mayores (inyectable o nasal).
Busy office!
October 19, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
We are currently experiencing demand similar to middle of winter. You may have noticed increased delays in getting through on the phone and decreased availability of appointments. We are adding in provider shifts and adding staff where we can to keep up.
We set aside about half of all our appointments each day for same day scheduling (approx. 100-150 appointments) and those are given out on a first call first served basis. Call early in the AM for best chance for a same day appointment.
Mondays are always the busiest day. We recommend calling on other weekdays or Saturday AM if possible for appointment scheduling, prescription requests or routine health questions.
Use our online secure patient portal for non-urgent prescription requests, appointment requests, and health questions. Questions for our established patients can be asked directly to nurses, various departments and our doctors directly from the website.
View our website for health information and advice. While it is no substitute for direct medical care it can provide information to help make health decisions. The majority of the atypical demand is due to influenza. Fortunately the vast majority of patients with influenza are able to recover at home with rest, fluids and ibuprofen. Kids that need to be seen by doctor are those with chronic medical problems, experiencing asthma flare, or experiencing lung symptoms such as faster, labored breathing.
Flu shot clinic cancelled for 10/17
October 15, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
Due to temporary short supply of influenza vaccines we will not be having walk-in clinic this week. We anticipate to continue to get H1N1 dosages through the coming weeks and will make a decision each week on whether we have adequate supply of vaccine to hold walk-in clinic. Seasonal vaccine is nearly out and we do not anticipate more dosages until November.
Influenza vaccine update
October 14, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
Things are changing rapidly!
H1N1 vaccines are dribbling in on a weekly basis and we are already used up the few doses we have received. We don’t anticipate having doses available for our Saturday clinic. We will post update once that changes. We have ordered several thousand dosages but are dependent on public health system on how and when they get distributed.
Seasonal influenza vaccine has currently run out. We are anticipating another 1000 dosages likely sometime next month. Many vaccine producers temporarily halted seasonal flu vaccine to allow for production of H1N1 vaccine. Fortunately seasonal influenza usually doesn’t become common January to March.
Polls
Loading ...
