Influenza Vaccine Update
November 24, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
H1N1 vaccine continues to arrive in our clinic in small weekly batches. We continue to administer between 200-400 doses per week. We are about to cross 2000 doses administered. We are continuing to add names to wait list and give vaccine by appointment.
Beginning 11/20 Oregon health department is recommending temporary change in vaccine recommendations to prioritize the following groups:
- All kids less than 5 years old
- All kids 5 years and older with a diagnosis that puts them at increased risk for hospitalization from flu (including asthma, heart disease, diabetes)
- All kids with an infant in the household who is less than 6 months old
Latest information continues to be at Oregon State Health Flu Information and CDC H1N1 page
We anticipate to return to vaccinating all children over age 5 in coming weeks. We are following state health recommendations.
We have still not received any additional doses of seasonal flu vaccine. We are now being told by vaccine manufacturers not to expect doses until January or February.
Flu activity in Oregon and most of the country continue to decline. We have definitely seen a decline in cases in our clinic with a sharp decline in number of hospitalized patients.
Salem-Keizer schools to host shot clinic
November 18, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
Statesman Journal is reporting that Salem-Keizer school district will be holding shot clinics at three locations. They will be screening and only offering to children with chronic health conditions. Newspaper website does not list contact information but contacting your child’s school for more information will likely get most up to date information.
Some good flu news for once
November 18, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
Our community and many areas of the country are finally seeing a decline in influenza activity. Reason is likely a combination of immunity from those that have recovered from flu as well as slowly growing immunization efforts. Demand on our office is definitely decreasing and our access is improving. We are seeing shorter hold times and better appointment availability.
Reports of flu activity can be seen at CDC Flu activity and Google Flu Trends. The CDC data lags the Google graphs as it is based on surveillance in offices and hospitals while the Google estimates are based on internet search queries.
H1N1 influenza vaccine continues to trickle in. Last week we received the greatest number of doses in a week (about 600). We are quickly giving those out to scheduled appointments and working through wait list. We anticipate another 200 doses this week and will schedule off the wait list as soon as those doses have arrived. We hope our new system is working better for you, reducing anxiety and time spent on the phone. We will call each person off the wait list when vaccine comes in. We are unable to estimate when your child’s name will come to top of wait list since the vaccine supply is sporadic so be we appreciate your patience.
Seasonal flu vaccine continues to be unavailable across the country. We had been expecting some in November but are now being told may not be until January or February. The manufactures shifted production to H1N1 flu vaccine to meet demand, reducing and delaying seasonal flu vaccine. We are not scheduling seasonal flu vaccine or taking wait list for seasonal vaccine since we don’t anticipate any dosages for the next several weeks.
Google has created a resource to find locations for influenza vaccine: Google Flu shot
Physician Assistants can now be your Primary Care Provider
November 17, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
We believe that every child deserves a medical home with a provider they regularly see for their visits. In response to requests and to improve our access we are now allowing patients to pick from our great physician assistants as well as our physician providers. We have great confidence in their abilities to manage challenging pediatric problems. Both Krisi Kamstra and Angie Lyons both completed their pediatric training in our clinic have now been working with us for several years. They are available for appointments with much less wait than many of our physician providers. Visit our provider directory to see photos and bios.
Both Krisi Kamstra and Angie Lyons graduated from OHSU. Our clinic continues to educate PA students from OHSU, training them in high quality pediatric outpatient care. OHSU PA Program
No walk-in flu clinic for 11/14
November 13, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
Until further notice H1N1 influenza vaccines will be given by appointment only. Currently all available shot appointments are filled or being filled by those on waiting list. To get your child on a waiting list send an email to h1n1@childhoodhealth.com. At this time the waiting list is only for H1N1 influenza vaccine. We are having two of our nurses working full time to manage the list and administer vaccine.
We received two batches of vaccine making this week the best for vaccine shipments for our clinic. We are working to get it quickly into kids. The first batch was only for four years and up while second batch included vaccine that can be given to all children 6 months and older.
We did receive some nasal seasonal vaccine from the state for our patients on the Oregon Health Plan or uninsured (Vaccine for Children program). We still do not have more doses for patients on commercial health plans. The nasal vaccine can be given to patients 2 years and older without asthma or other serious chronic disease. We will start scheduling for seasonal flu vaccines once we have more doses available. No injectable seasonal vaccine is available at this time.
To help find locations for vaccine, google started a map at: Google flushot map
H1N1 Vaccine appointments now available
November 9, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
We have received an unexpected limited supply of vaccine today and have scrambled to make available flu shot appointments for this week. We are going to do this one week at a time due to amount of vaccine we have received. If you child is past 4th birthday call to schedule. Next paragraph explains why age restriction.
Vaccine this week is only for kids 4 years and older. This is due to it coming from a different manufacturer than in previous weeks and only licensed for older kids. We did not receive any vaccine for kids under that age group. This vaccine is injectable so can be given to patients with asthma. We haven’t yet heard about next weeks allotment.
Also due to requests of families we are beginning a wait list for vaccine. This is not a priority list but rather a simple waitlist. Appointments will be offered as vaccine becomes available. Those that are unable to get an appointment for this week due to young age or appointments all fully scheduled can be placed on a list and will be contacted once more vaccine is available. To get on the list you can email us at h1n1@childhoodhealth.com. Please include patient name, birth date, and preferred phone number. Remember that email is not secure and can be intercepted and read by others while in transit between email providers. If you are concerned about privacy of email call our office to get on list. Due to inconsistent amount of vaccine coming each week we are unable to predict when you child will get vaccine, but we hope the wait list will allow us evenly and fairly distribute vaccine.
Flu shot clinic changes coming
November 6, 2009 by Kenneth Carlson, MD
[Update: We were contacted by the health department today (11/6) telling us to expect 400 doses next week. We consider this unconfirmed until we have doses in our hands and will not be scheduling appointments until doses have been received and counted.]
Saturday November 7th will proceed as planned as a walk in clinic. We are listening to feedback from our families and we are hearing that there is a preference to resume shot appointments. We originally hoped to have much more vaccine available and in the past walk in clinics have been very successful to get a lot of vaccine distributed quickly.
For the coming weeks it appears supply of vaccine will continue to be limited. This will continue to cause too many families arriving on Saturday to be unable to receive flu vaccine. To reduce frustration we will begin taking appointments for flu shots when the next batch is shipped to our office. Don’t call yet as we don’t have vaccine available for appointments yet. We anticipate our small number of currently available doses to be given out this coming Saturday. Unfortunately rain is in the forcast for this weekend so if you do plan to come bring umbrellas and rain gear. If you would like to stay dry, wait for updates on website for when we have vaccine available and will be able to take appointments.
At this time we don’t know when our next batch of vaccine will arive. We have been told by the health department that Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day may interfere with shipments. We have let them know we are willing to assist in any way including driving to them and helping distribute. We have ordered 5000 doses and received 1100 to date. Unfortunately we are dependent on the vaccine manufacturers and state vaccine distribution systems to get vaccine. It is not an issue of us not ordering enough.
Please continue to use the comments to give us your ideas on how to fairly and quickly distribute this vaccine.
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