Communication, scheduling important as you roll out vaccine program

by A.J. Plunkett (aplunkett@decisionhealth.com)

Set up clear communication with your hospital staff and remain open to feedback as you receive and administer the COVID-19 vaccines.

Work with supervisors and other leadership to schedule staff vaccinations and, if possible, work around shifts so that workers who do experience symptoms don’t have to cope with them while working.

Scheduling and communication may be two of the most important keys to having a success vaccination program, says Anurag Malani, MD, Medical Director, Infection Prevention & Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs, for St. Joseph Mercy Health System, which includes seven facilities in southeast Michigan.

St. Joe’s actually received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Thursday, December 17, about a day ahead of schedule, said Malani.

But within a few hours, the health system had employees scheduled for vaccination at 10 to 15 minute intervals, administering about 770 of the approximately 975 doses by Monday afternoon.

Overall, Mulani said he was amazed with how well things have gone so far.

St. Joe’s began by scheduling what they called their 1A tier of staffers who work closest to the COVID-19 patients: physicians, nurses, transporters, technicians, environmental services personnel or anyone working in a COVID unit, he said. (Yes, that includes the residents.)

The hospital is also taking staff from other facilities within their system who did not immediately get vaccines, he said.

The most important concern he has so far is making sure that the hospital is communicating with its staff, answering questions and ensuring that those who should get the vaccine get schedule for their first dose —and make a return trip for the second dose.

The vaccinations are not mandatory and there has been a lot of misinformation about the vaccines and their safety in the last few weeks, he said.

It’s important to address concerns and get as many people in for their immunization as possible, he said.

“The pandemic is not going to go away if it’s just healthcare workers” getting vaccinations “and it’s not going to go away if only half of your workers are taking it,” Malani said.

Communication is also important in getting those staffers back for their second dose, even if they had an adverse reaction to the first immunization, he said.

Like many vaccinations, the most typical symptom is discomfort at the site of the injection as well as headaches, fatigue and other general body aches. But those symptoms usually go away quickly, he said.

This is a two-shot immunization and won’t be effective if there’s not a second dose. Having said that, he did note that the most adverse symptoms are likely to happen after the second dose.

That’s why it will be important to keep open communication, urged Malani. While the immunizations are voluntary, Malani said supervisors should try to identify who is not getting the vaccine so that concerns can be addressed and questions answered.

Hesitancy about vaccinations is understandable, he said, given that historically some groups have been more impacted by others by the disease or problems with vaccinations.

But that’s all the more reason to reach and get those groups the information they need to make decisions, he said.

“Transparency and open dialogue is pretty important,” he said.