Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Blogs
    • AI
    • Deals
    • Layoff Tracker
    • HIMSS 2023
  • Opinion
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - AI and Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
  • Data & Insights
    • Data & Insights Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Providers
December 28, 2020 03:51 PM

Atrium Health, other systems struggle to decide who will get the vaccine first

Nona Tepper
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Atrium Health has canceled dozens of staff vaccination appointments after a controversy erupted around who the North Carolina system was prioritizing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

    The system was simply following the prioritization set by the state public health department, said Dr. Scott Rissmiller, Atrium's executive vice president and chief physician executive. The trouble exemplifies the difficulties systems face in deciding which staff members will be vaccinated and in what order.

    State guidelines stipulate that in the first phase of vaccations, only healthcare workers who are at a "high risk" for catching COVID are eligible. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services defines "high risk" as those caring for patients with COVID-19; working directly in areas where patients with COVID-19 are cared for; performing procedures at high risk of aerosolization on patients with COVID-19; handling decedents with COVID-19; and those administering the vaccine.

    Dr. Rissmiller said that Katie McKiever, an enterprise social media manager, was among the 41,000 Atrium staff members to receive state certification to be immediately vaccinated, and grouped in the state's Phase 1a category.

    Within this cohort, Atrium created subsets of personnel to receive the vaccine, with emergency room personnel, front-line physicians and hospital staff working in the COVID-19 unit among those to receive the highest priority. The healthcare system relied, in part, on its human resource department lists to help create these subsets. The original guidelines caused McKiever to receive an appointment because she had worked in a vaccination area at Atrium, documenting the first vaccines.

    "At this time of this surge in patients, we have people who are volunteering to work in areas that are a higher risk for COVID, and if you just look at their job description, you would not realize that," Rissmiller said.

    On Dec. 23, North Carolina state health officials sent providers a letter further clarifying how staff in their Phase 1a cohorts should be prioritized. Atrium then re-evaluated its list of people who would receive the vaccine first and removed the social media manager and 96 other "operational people who were involved in managing the front line offices but don't come in direct contact with patients who might have COVID, or are at a lower risk of doing so," Rissmiller said. McKiever has since been moved to Phase 1b prioritization, and the state has yet to offer guidance on when she will be vaccinated.

    "Of the 33,000 that were sent out, over 99% of them were accurate, the others have been rescheduled to the next phase," Rissmiller said.

    Atrium has so far vaccinated 5,000 of its workers.

    Stanford Health recently came under fire for its prioritization process. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based health system's algorithm allegedly prioritized high-ranking doctors above medical residents working on the front-lines of COVID-19, with some residents telling ProPublica that only seven residents were scheduled to receive one of the initial 5,000 doses of the vaccine given to Stanford.

    Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, senior associate dean at Stanford, said that the initial dataset powering the health system's algorithm was built to consider individuals' job title, assignment location and, with an eye toward equity, aimed to prioritize those who "already had a risk of severe complications" from COVID-19, individuals over the age of 65 and "groups coming from certain zip codes."

    ProPublica reported that this led the algorithm to exclude residents, who are often younger than senior healthcare personnel and not assigned a specific location in the health system. Maldonado said the rush to deliver initial doses of the vaccine led hospital leaders not to vet the dataset. She said Stanford has since gone back to individual unit leaders and asked them to review the vaccine prioritization list. Stanford has so far vaccinated "several thousands" of personnel, she said.

    "Many of our colleagues around the country have had issues as well," Maldonado said. "It's very hard to set up a brand new system to allocate thousands of doses of a new product in a 24- to 48-hour period."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Rob Allen Intermountain 23
    Intermountain's Graphite Health may be AI 'grounding point,' CEO says
    Nursing home wheelchair
    4,000 Michigan nursing home beds at risk in proposed staffing mandate
    Most Popular
    1
    CMS tries luring providers to revamped Medicare ACOs
    2
    Oregon joins other states in setting ratios for nurse staffing
    3
    Blue Shield CA taps Amazon, Mark Cuban, CVS for new PBM model
    4
    A health innovation hub grows in Lake Nona Medical City
    5
    Hospital-at-home providers push for Medicaid coverage
    Sponsored Content
    Modern Healthcare A.M. Newsletter: Sign up to receive a comprehensive weekday morning newsletter designed for busy healthcare executives who need the latest and most important healthcare news and analysis.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Help Center
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Blogs
      • AI
      • Deals
      • Layoff Tracker
      • HIMSS 2023
    • Opinion
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - AI and Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
      • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
    • Data & Insights
      • Data & Insights Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing