RUTHERFORD, Pa. — Six weeks after Pennsylvania started vaccine distribution, some health care workers are still unable to access the vaccine.
Non-affiliated health care workers, who are not employed by a hospital system, have reported problems trying to schedule vaccinations.
Unlike some other states, like New Jersey and Ohio, Pennsylvania doesn’t have a centralized registration system for people to sign up for the vaccine. Healthcare worker vaccinations are left to providers—usually large hospital systems.
“We’re not affiliated with any medical center, so there was nowhere for me to go to get a vaccine,” said Dr. Lori Leiman, an audiologist from Rutherford who works at Hearing Life, a group of hearing loss clinics. “I was on four waiting lists.”
About 450,000 of Pennsylvania’s 1 million healthcare workers are non-affiliated, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Those workers must now wait in line with about 2.5 million more Pennsylvanians in Phase 1A. The state Department of Health last week moved to Phase 1A people 65 and older and those with certain high-risk conditions.
“I know more healthcare workers that cannot now get a shot,” Leiman said. “They can’t even get through to any of these places because they’ve added so many other people to the Phase 1A.”
Leiman said she was disappointed the state had shifted the new group to Phase 1A before all health care workers had been vaccinated.
“I think it should be made easier for healthcare workers,” she said.
Most non-affiliated healthcare workers have to schedule the vaccine through individual pharmacies.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has not prioritized healthcare workers over others in Phase 1A, but does require vaccine providers hold 10 percent of vaccines for health care personnel.
“We are hearing from providers that they have not been vaccinated, so that we’re also encouraging especially those non-affiliated providers to go to the map, reach out to those contacts on the map and schedule those appointments right now to make sure they’re vaccinated,” Cindy Findley, head of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s COVID-19 Task Force, said at a Jan. 19 press conference.
Leiman said she finally got a call from Hershey Pharmacy to get her vaccine this weekend.
“It kind of felt like I was going to Disneyworld,” Leiman said.
Some other health care workers are still waiting.