Small pharmacies 'beyond frustrated' as Pennsylvania locks them out of vaccine process

As Pennsylvania officials work to roll back the number of covid-19 vaccine providers in an effort to streamline the process, several businesses across the region have learned they are slated to no longer receive first doses.

Efforts to curtail the number of providers began in February, when Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said it was the most effective way to vaccinate the most people in the least amount of time.

A state Health Department spokesperson said 817 providers have received vaccine doses since December.

Now, the number of providers has been temporarily reduced to between 200 and 300. Those are a mix of hospitals, pharmacies, public health providers and federally qualified health centers.

“We’re partnering with the providers who are best suited to achieve the goals of getting as many individuals vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Beam said Thursday. “We surveyed all of the providers and mapped out an initial view of the provider network that will receive focused allocations over the next few weeks.”

Beam noted those providers received first doses this week and will continue receiving allocations in the coming weeks. Factors such as geographic reach, access for residents, equity across demographics and estimated demand were taken into account when deciding which facilities would receive vaccine doses.

Facilities that will no longer receive first doses of the vaccine were told the temporary changes will allow officials to administer between 750,000 and 1 million doses per week, according to an email from the state’s health department obtained by the Tribune-Review.

“This means more people in your community will be vaccinated,” the email reads.

The health department asked facilities that will no longer receive first doses to “stand by as we temporarily focus allocations on other providers amid limited supply.” Second doses will still be sent to those providers, according to the email.

‘Beyond frustrated’

But for facilities working to inoculate as many community members as possible, the news was far from welcomed.

Jay Adzema, owner of Adzema Pharmacy in McCandless, said he has struggled over the past few weeks to have doses sent to him. After receiving the state’s email Thursday morning, Adzema said he was “beyond frustrated.”

“We are the neighborhood community pharmacy for the last 60 years, and this is where people want to go and they’re not able to because we don’t have anything,” Adzema said, noting that he has delivered doses to people unable to travel and administered the vaccine to people in his parking lot who struggled to get out of their vehicles.

Brittany Miller, a pharmacist at Roadway Pharmacy in St. Clair, expressed similar concerns. Like Adzema, she said her business has struggled to receive doses the past few weeks. On Tuesday, Roadway received 1,000 doses, Miller said. However, that was the first shipment received since the first week of February.

“They never really ever gave us the opportunity to actually do more or to prove we can do more or to help the community or anything really,” Miller said.

Roadway received the state email Thursday stating it would not receive more first doses over the next several weeks.

Customers of Roadway Pharmacy, located in rural Westmoreland County, would have to travel to Johnstown or Blairsville to find other covid-19 vaccine providers, according to a map on the Department of Health’s website. Miller noted that people in the area would likely not travel far to receive the vaccine, meaning they would not get inoculated.

So far, 4 million vaccines have been administered across the state, according to data from the state’s health department. Of those, 2.6 million are first doses while 1.4 million are full vaccines. Still, people who qualify under phase 1A under the state’s plan have struggled with vaccine access due to a limited supply.

Those who currently qualify — including health care workers, long-term care residents, anyone over the age of 65 and those aged 16 to 64 with certain health conditions — have endured long wait lines at community pharmacies and difficulty in obtaining appointments.

Raji Jayakrishnan, executive director of Community Health Clinic, which has locations in New Kensington and Greensburg, said she is hopeful streamlining the vaccination process will allow the state to better manage the number of sites as well as the number of vaccines going to facilities.

Jayakrishnan said she received an email from the state health department stating both locations were designated vaccine providers.

“We are very, very grateful for that,” Jayakrishnan said. “I’m honored to be part of that team. Community Health Clinic’s mission is to serve people in the community, underserved and otherwise. We will do our best to reach as many people as possible in the specified amount of time as per the governor’s orders.”

The email sent to facilities that would no longer qualify as a vaccine providers suggested they could be reactivated once the state’s supply from the federal government increases. A date for when that might happen was not available. However, President Biden suggested last week that all adults could be eligible for the vaccine by May 1.

“Eventually those trusted, local providers will be critical to reaching even more Pennsylvanians and building greater trust in the safety and efficacy of these lifesaving vaccines,” Beam said.