Excela planning for vaccine distribution when supplies become available

Excela Health plans to open coronavirus vaccination appointments to community members meeting the state’s guidelines when the health system has enough vaccine to go around.

But not just yet.

Dr. Carol Fox, the system’s chief medical officer, said health care workers at Excela’s three hospitals and other independent community providers still need either their first or second immunization. They will remain the priority until a better supply of the vaccine is made available by the federal government.

Fox and other local medical leaders last week warned the public there is not enough supply on hand to meet the demand prompted by expanded vaccine eligibility in Pennsylvania. That remains true, though Fox said she appreciates that community members are heeding calls to get immunized.

“I’m very grateful that so many people in the community are anxious to get the vaccine,” Fox said. “It is going to require some patience on all our parts.”

Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday urged President Biden to speed up vaccine distribution efforts. Wolf said he believed, when the state was asked this month to add people 65 and older and other groups to Phase 1A, the top priority group, that there would be an expanded supply of vaccine. That has not been the case.

Biden announced Tuesday plans to buy another 200 million vaccines doses and increase supplies to states over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Excela Health officials will work on their plan to expand access to the community. There is no target date for that effort to get underway.

“It is difficult to work through the logistics of developing our process when we’re having to spend a significant amount of time talking to people about why they can’t get their vaccine right now,” she said.

Fox expects more doses to come soon. The health system got two shipments from the state of about 3,000 doses of each vaccine since mid-December to use on health care workers and others in Phase 1A of the state’s four-phase immunization plan.

When Excela is able to move into community inoculations, Fox said she expects to first open availability to those who are 75 and older because of a limited number of doses that likely will be available. There are about 35,000 residents in the county who meet that age requirement, according to census data.

“We will have a limited number of vaccines, and we don’t want to crash our registration systems, either,” she said.

Once the supply builds up, availability will expand to those 65 and older — about 81,000 people in the county. Some of that population likely includes residents of nursing and long-term care facilities that have their own vaccination programs underway.

So far, more than 11,500 Westmoreland residents have received one dose of vaccine, while about 4,400 have received both doses, according to figures from the state health department. Statewide, more than 600,000 residents have received one shot, with more than 130,000 having received both. Of the roughly 12.8 million people in the state, about 346,000 live in Westmoreland County.

When appointments through Excela are available, they will be offered in small chunks. It is a process that requires officials to keep tabs on who is being vaccinated, monitoring them and reporting the information to the state, Fox said. Officials expect they might use community-based locations to administer the vaccines, but the plan is still in the works. There is not a waiting list.

“There are a lot of moving parts to giving the vaccine, and it’s not as simple as just lining everybody up,” she said.

When community members meeting the age requirements are able to make appointments, it will be announced at excelahealth.org. Citizens will be able to register online, which will streamline the process for medical officials. Other avenues of registering will be available as the vaccine supply grows, Fox said.