Are You Assisting in Innoculations ?

[tniuqs]

Brother trust me I'm trying need more info to arm myself, a debate in Ottawa tonight emergency debate, now is the time to use this as ammo ... we have a few ears as you know.

cheers

[kevkei]

Hey, tniuqs, here is some info direct from AHS.

AHS Briefing Room - Oct 30, 2009

Call for AHS EMS Paramedics in AHS Influenza Immunization Clinics

(Chris Portas)

We are building a list of paramedics willing to work in AHS influenza immunization clinics delivering vaccinations and related duties. These staff will be orientated and active in a very short time frame.

We will be working in the order below of staff profiles to assist in the clinics. Special consideration may be given to staff who have given flu immunization in the past. We will work with operations to minimize impact on frontline resources.



Pregnant females or the possibility of being pregnant will be strictly excluded



Currently this is a paramedic only position

Order of priority in staffing call out

1. Modified worker/light duty

2. Casual and part time

3. Full time

[kevkei]

Sorry, I guess my link is password protected. I have attached the document.

AHS has postings on their website as well.

Immunization Clinicians

Immunization Clinicians 2

Briefing Room Oct 30th.pdf

Edited November 3, 2009 by kevkei

[tniuqs]

paramedic@lists.smartrisk.ca

Subject: News-ottawa paramedics assiting with Flu shots

"To bulk up the workforce, Levy has hired more temporary nurses and redeployed "every available vaccinator we have found in the city," including those paramedics who are, for whatever reason, on leave from frontline duty.

Up to a dozen paramedics have been assigned at each of the bigger clinics to augment the 15 or so nurses giving the shots. As a result, the city's six clinics have been vaccinating between 4,200 to 8,550 people a day. On Sunday, the clinics gave 8,500 vaccinations.

"In order to vaccinate more people, our clinics need more trained professionals to work as vaccinators," Levy said in a memo to city staff issued on Saturday."

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/iphone/news/ottawa-area/Hospital+staff+bring+family+workplace+vaccine+clinic/2171266/story.html

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/iphone/news/ottawa-area/Hospital+staff+bring+family+workplace+vaccine+clinic/2171266/story.html

Hospital staff bring family to workplace vaccine clinic

Monday, November 2, 2009

By Pauline Tam, The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Officially, the weekend vaccination clinic at The Ottawa Hospital was aimed at the 13,000 staff who work at the region's largest health-care provider -- and are among those at the front of the line for the H1N1 flu shot.

After all, if the hospital's doctors, nurses, support staff and administrators fall sick during a pandemic, it could hobble the entire system.

But when word of the weekend clinic got out, some hospital employees brought along their family members, many of whom had been turned away from long lineups at the vaccination clinics run by the city's public-health department.

The situation created a dilemma for the hospital.

"We knew ... that we were probably going to be confronted with situations of people showing up at the door of our clinic, not only with themselves but with their family members," said Nicolas Ruszkowski, The Ottawa Hospital's vice-president of communications and outreach.

"The ethical question you ask yourself is: Do we turn them away or do we take them? And the ethical decision that we made was we're not going to turn anybody away as long as we know that we're covering our staff."

Ruszkowski said he doesn't know how many of the 8,495 people who got their pandemic flu shot over the weekend were relatives of hospital staffers. But he said the hospital carefully weighed the benefits of extending the vaccine to employees' families before making the decision.

"You can reduce absenteeism among your health-care workforce if they're coming to work instead of being at home, caring for their sick husband, sick wife, sick children," said Ruszkowski.

And so while Ottawa's six H1N1 clinics struggled to inoculate 6,800 people on Saturday, The Ottawa Hospital quietly vaccinated nearly 3,400 -- the result of a mass effort by up to 600 hospital employees, who volunteered to run a workplace vaccination clinic at the hospital's Riverside campus.

Among them were nurses giving flu shots, support staff and administrators handling paperwork and pharmacists loading syringes with vaccine -- all of whom formed a briskly efficient assembly line.

By Sunday, the hospital had immunized another 5,000 -- a pace that rivals that of the six public clinics on their better days. "We have a built-in infrastructure and advantage at the hospital. It's probably not fair to compare us to public health," said Ruszkowski.

Yet as the public vaccination clinics head into their second week, with little sign that demand will let up, the city's public-health department is scrambling to find more people to give the pandemic flu shot.

The long lineups outside clinics that characterized the first week have been a mixed blessing for officials, who are gratified that people are taking their flu-prevention message to heart.

But the unexpected surge in demand has also pushed public-health workers to the limit. Even with almost all of the department's 475 employees reassigned to the vaccination effort, the clinics are still perpetually short-staffed.

The staffing crunch is one reason health officials say they are hampered from opening more clinics. In particular, school-based clinics are not considered practical given that they require more staff than is available, yet target only a small portion of those considered at high risk of getting swine flu.

"We've already exceeded capacity," Dr. Isra Levy, the city's medical officer of health, said in a weekend interview. "I mean, we've already redeployed the entire workforce now, even deeper than the original plan of 70 per cent."

To bulk up the workforce, Levy has hired more temporary nurses and redeployed "every available vaccinator we have found in the city," including those paramedics who are, for whatever reason, on leave from frontline duty.

Up to a dozen paramedics have been assigned at each of the bigger clinics to augment the 15 or so nurses giving the shots. As a result, the city's six clinics have been vaccinating between 4,200 to 8,550 people a day. On Sunday, the clinics gave 8,500 vaccinations.

"In order to vaccinate more people, our clinics need more trained professionals to work as vaccinators," Levy said in a memo to city staff issued on Saturday.

"We have also put out a call for trained personnel to work as vaccinators -- a call that many have answered. However, we continue to see a lack of capacity that makes it impossible to vaccinate more people than are already being served through our clinics."

Since the vaccination program began last Monday, the total number of immunizers has doubled from 70 to 140. For every frontline nurse, paramedic or doctor giving the needle, an additional two or three support workers are needed to triage patients and enter computer data about who is getting the shots.

Over the weekend, dozens of staff from the city's parks and recreation department were brought in to help manage crowds at the clinics, freeing up more public-health staff to handle other duties.

But with the clinics running seven days a week and staff needing some days off, officials are finding it a challenge to set up shift schedules for weeks at a time, Levy said.

"We only have about a 24-hour ability to predict and forecast staffing. And we have a lot of holes in our scheduling because there are just so many people available, many of them are staying late to get as many people vaccinated as possible and people are starting to get tired."

At the Kanata Recreation Complex, one of the city's busiest clinics, about 16 vaccinators were on hand to inoculate 1,200 people on Sunday. Over the past week, many of the clinic's staff have stayed until 11 p.m., well past the 8:30 p.m. closing time, to finish their vaccinations.

Sorry, I guess my link is password protected. I have attached the document.

AHS has postings on their website as well.

Immunization Clinicians

Immunization Clinicians 2

ALERT!

The contact number for the news is an error please do not phone it.

Attached File(s)

Briefing Room Oct 30th.pdf (102.02K)

Number of downloads: 2

[WolfmanHarris]

Update from my region:

- In addition to the one at the hospital, the Regional Municipality is openning three Flu assessment clinics. These walk-in clinics are designed to divert people with ILI from entering the ED and quickly assess and identify anyone requiring further care from those who should return home. (Paramedics are not involved in this initiative)

- Paramedics continue to help staff the public flu shot clinics.

- Medic teams have begun staffing mobile vaccination clincs in addition to normal staffing. Current priorities are to immunize family Physicians and their staff. It is expected that this will be followed by PD, FD and similar organizations.

- The Region has set up a few clinics dedicated to immunizing Regional health care staff, mirroring the programs run in the hospitals for their staff. These clinics have little to no lines and are dedicated for Paramedics, Nurses and other front line health care staff employed by the Region.

- One of the three regional hospitals has agreed to allow Paramedics on offload delay to utilize their internal clinic along with their own staff.

- Dispatch continues to diligently screen for FRI as they have for quite awhile now and medics seem to all be wearing PPE as appropriate. (Just observations from when I've been working.)

There may be more going one, but that's

[Siffaliss]

Last I checked, paramedics were able to give this shots. They did last year, and did a fine job I might add! (No, it wasn't me) ...

[kevkei]

This e-mail was sent today from the Alberta College of Paramedics.

From: Alberta College of Paramedics (acp@collegeofparamedics.org)

Sent: November 3, 2009 3:14:54 PM

To: **%^&$)($*

Good afternoon,

Questions have been raised by Alberta Health Services and health practitioners regarding the use of EMT-Ps in the administration of the H1N1 vaccines. The Alberta College of Paramedics, Alberta Health Services (AHS), and Alberta Health and Wellness have been in discussions regarding this issue. The ACP has determined that the administration of the H1N1 vaccine--delivered via intramuscular injection--is within the scope of practice of an EMT-P.

[tniuqs]

kevkei

Thanks for the links bro I am in seriously in your debt, it appears that Alberta is also is now responding to use the resourses available and the what a wake up we needed, hence I have applied.

Best time and get of my arse and computer and put MY money where MY mouth is aboot.

cheers

ps late entry ... re ACoP note, ROTFLMFAO it appears that this situation may have actually broken some turf wars .. I bet your anecdotal comment re the epi comment was actually taken to heart, one just never knows who is lurking here on EMT city.

Edited November 4, 2009 by tniuqs

[CBEMT]

Our DOH put out a statewide call to all EMS agencies and other healthcare providers asking for volunteers to be trained (off duty) to provide seasonal flu vaccines (off duty) at regional and school clinics. Some of our EMTs participated. When the H1N1 becomes available, they'll probably end up doing that as well. So far, it looks like we're getting the injectable version here.

[HERBIE1]

As I suspected, a recent emergency proclamation by our governor has authorized medics to provide these vaccinations for LEO, fire, and EMS providers. (I'm actually amazed, since according to some here, we are so woefully undereducated, we should not be allowed to administer an IM injection without a PHD in EMS, but I digress..)

A call went out for volunteers to assist- off duty, no pay- and interestingly enough(or not) they have had few takers. No matter, since it seems the volunteers still far outweigh the needs for the shots within this group. Right or wrong, many in public safety have declined to receive these shots.

As is the case around the country, the problem is not a lack of providers to give the vaccinations, but with the lack of the H1N1 vaccine itself.