As hospitals and health systems receive the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, they must decide which front-line workers are inoculated first based on supply, local and state guidelines, and other factors. One Pennsylvania health system, Pittsburgh-based UPMC, is using health status, occupation and lottery to help make that determination, according to The Wall Street Journal.
UPMC began vaccinating healthcare workers — including nurses, a physician, a transporter and others — on Dec 14. The health system said it expects to be able to vaccinate all front-line healthcare workers who wish to be inoculated by the end of January.
But with 60,000 front-line healthcare workers at the health system, as well as a limited supply, UPMC must decide who gets the shots first. The health system will first vaccinate those working in critical units, including physicians, nurses and workers cleaning the emergency room and registering patients, Doug White, MD, an ethicist at the University of Pittsburgh, said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reported that UPMC will narrow the list more by prioritizing employees who are at greatest risk of severe disease, and it will ask employees to confirm they have a high-risk condition, such as heart disease, without asking for specifics or verifying. The health system said this means relying on an honor system.
UPMC, as necessary, will also use a lottery to select which employees will be able to schedule their shot, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Read the full article here.
More articles on workforce:
COVID-19 vaccine distribution: How 4 systems are deciding who gets first shots
UPMC adds hundreds of nurses, bed capacity amid COVID-19 surge
With COVID-19 vaccines, light at the end of the tunnel is brighter, Bon Secours exec says