Monday
Nov092009
H1N1 Vaccine appointments now available
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 5:32AM
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.
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.
Reader Comments (22)
My three children received their H1N1 vaccine today! Thank you doctors and staff for making appointments available. It is our family's wish that all children will be vaccinated within a short time.
P.S. The nurse who gave the shots was super nice!
Sincerely,
Sophie
2 doses of H1N1 vaccine is recommended for all kids under age 10. For seasonal vaccine two doses is recommended for all kids under age 9 that have not had 2 doses prior to this season. Both prior doses don't have to be same year and can be many years apart to count. Seasonal vaccine should be separated by minimum interval of 28 days.
We are waiting to offer booster for H1N1 until we get more initial doses done. We hope to start offering H1N1 booster in the next 2 weeks depending on vaccine supply. Boosters should be separated by minimum of 21 days.
We do not have seasonal vaccine available at this time but are hoping for more doses later this month.
I am a little disappointed that you are not accepting new patients. Being a military family there are only two clinics in the Salem area that accept Tricare.
I am impressed with the technology associated with your clinic, and the ability to contact your doctors online, something that I am not able to do with my children's current provider. The phone system there is terrible.
Hopefully you will open your doors soon, especially to those of us who really have limited options.
Thank you for your support. Unfortunately we are losing Dr. Egelseer to Portland beginning first of the year and are currently trying to keep up with influenza. We strive to keep our wait times short and quality of our medical care high. When demand overwhelms our available resources we need to temporarily close to new patients. We revisit this monthly and hope to reopen soon.
We have been able to get more children vaccinated this week. We are not yet offering boosters until more kids can get their first dose done. We hope to begin offering this next week. Will make a decision early next week depending on vaccine supply. All children under age 10 are recommended to have a booster for best protection against influenza, regardless of risk factors.
I read above that the clinic is not administering boosters at this time due to the limited vaccine supply (which is totally understandable.) My question is, if I know my children are going to be due for their booster in three weeks, should I email and have them placed on the waiting list? or is the waiting list only for first-time vaccinations?
Thank you
We are glad you are interested in getting booster. We ask that for now please wait to get on list until we have decided to begin offering boosters. We hope to do this by next week but are dependent on vaccine supply. It does appear that vaccine supply is improving. Our waiting list is currently equal to about one week's batch of vaccine (though we have not received a batch every week) so we are optimistic we will be able to soon get vaccine to those patients that need it. We hope to make a decision about opening up to boosters early next week.
Hi. I just sent in a request for an appointment for the H1N1 vaccines for all of my children. My question is are the vaccines still available? I also just read that the vaccines that you have are only for children that are 4 years and older my daughter is 3 1/2 will she be able to get it? Sorry I have one more question I heard that if one person in the family gets the vaccine that everyone in the family needs to fo the same immediately because the ones that have the vaccine are carring the H1N1 disease and can potentially give who ever hasnt had it the H1N1 disease is this true? Aorry for so many questions. Thank you.
We did just get some dosages for younger children. So at this time we are scheduling all patients 6 months and older for vaccine from the wait list.
The person getting the vaccine is NOT a threat to others in the house. The injectable vaccine is a killed vaccine and does not cause the person receiving the vaccine to carry the disease. Each person in a household that is vaccinated will decrease risk to others in the household. This is the strategy we employ when young infant is in the house or person in house with egg allergy and can't get the vaccine themselves.
will there be a flu clinic this Saturday Nov. 14th?
No walk-in flu clinic this Saturday. Until further notice flu shots will be given by appointment only. If appointments are not available then names will go to waitlist and future appointments will be filled from wait list first.
My sister and I had our children vaccinated with the H1N1 mist at the Polk Co. Clinic back on October 21st and we feel very lucky that they got that 1st vaccination. We have heard many different reports on how much protection they get from just 1 vaccination. Some say they have no protection until they have gotten the booster, others say they have some protection. What have you learned? We're just not sure if we need to rush to get their boosters as soon as they become available, or if we can wait until things calm down. Thank you!
There are many reviews attempting to measure this. The numbers report range from 35% to 75% protection from single vaccine. Number likely dependent on age of patient and previous influenza exposure. Youngest will likely have weaker response to single vaccine with stronger response by older patients. 10 and younger are recommended to get booster 21 or more days after first vaccine. In other words, there is some protection from one and good protection from two. Children over age 10 only need single dose.
We will be following that recommendation as soon as more patients receive their first vaccine and depending on vaccine availability. We will revisit this issue next week.
My daughter has asthma that is often difficult to control, although she is on preventive medecine. We have requested an appt for her from the beginning, but were told that unless she had a more serious medical condition, or for example, were on a ventilator, she would not be given consideration over other children under the age of 24. We have been to 3 shot clinics and were unable to receive the vaccine due to the shortage. Last week, we arrived at 7:45 and there was a line around the building, so I appreciate that you are now taking appts.
I've just read that county health departments in oregon are giving priority to children and adults from 5 to 64 who suffer from chronic medical problems such as asthma because they appear to be at higher risk. Are you giving any considerations in your scheduling of appts?
Sorry for your frustration with our shot clinics. Because of frustrations like yours we have changed to appointments. We are now scheduling appointments and keeping a waitlist when appointments aren't available. We are scheduling about one week ahead due to vaccine supply. We consider all kids under age 24 high risk, including patients with asthma. Since our number of patients with asthma far exceeds our available vaccine supply we are not setting priorities at this time. This exact topic was revisited by our doctors again this week based on county health reports. It appears that vaccine supply has eased up somewhat and we got more doses in the last week than in prior weeks. Our opinion is the time for rationing within pediatric patient groups is behind us and we will continue to work to get as much vaccine distributed as quickly as possible to all our patients. The group we haven't begun yet is those that need boosters. We will be revisiting this issue on a weekly basis depending on vaccine availability.
My daughter is 3 years old and recieved 1 seasonal flu shot when she was 7 months old and did not recieve a booster at that time. She recieved the seasonal flu shot this october, will she need a booster?
The recommendation is for young kids (less than 9 years old) who have not received two influenza vaccines in prior years (don't have to be same year) to receive two seasonal flu vaccines for best protection. Unfortunately we do not have seasonal flu vaccine available now but will make an announcement when and if we receive more vaccine.
I been callling in to check availability of the H1N1 for my daughter for 4 weeks now and they kept saying there's none available and just keep calling back or check the website. On 11/14, I called to check if there is a walk-in for the flu shot and the receptionist answered told me it's available with appointments only but will be given to patient who is on the waiting list already only. No one in the clinic told me that there is a waiting list!! If the receptionist didn't tell me that I would still be calling back to check only. Please advise your staff to be more detail. Now my daughter is on the waiting list but I don't know how far she is on that list.
Hi, I've emailed my request for an appointment for my kids, and I'm glad that you guys have made this somewhat easy for people on the go like me.
My question is that since people under 24 should get vaccinated also and I and under 24 should I just wait and not bother with it since the kids are getting it or I should also make an appointment?
Thanks in advance.
I put my son on the wait list on 11/10/09. How long should I wait to receive a call? I am just wondering what is an appropriate amount of time.
How quickly we go through the wait list is completely dependent on vaccine supply. We only received 200 additional doses this week. Average wait time is likely about 2-4 weeks based on size of list and pace of doses. We will call those on the list as soon as doses are available. We appreciate your patients ask that people do not call our office to check where they are on the list as our shot nurses are already working hard administering vaccines and managing the list. Since vaccine supply has been inconsistent we are unable to provide specific estimates as to the timing of when each position will come to the top.
H1N1 vaccine is recommended for many high risk groups including those 6 months to 24 years old. For more information visit: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/