Health system advances plans for community vaccinations
Penn State Health is advancing plans for community vaccination sites in Reading, Lancaster, Hershey, West Shore and State College to offer COVID-19 vaccine to our eligible patients and the public. These plans are pending the delivery of vaccine from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH).
Tentatively, our goal is to have these sites operational by late February. We are working with county government and partnering with other healthcare agencies regarding possible additional community vaccinations centers in Lancaster and Berks counties. If these are developed, we may collaborate with other health care providers to vaccinate community members at these sites.
Our community vaccination sites will be open Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Our goal is to vaccinate 3,000 patients a day across these sites, depending on vaccine availability. Patient lists will be comprised of all patients seen at any Penn State Health location, inclusive of our specialty practice sites. Our Center for Quality Innovation team will pull patient lists from our electronic health records (EHR) based on the DOH phased approach and risk stratification of our patients. We will contact patients based on the DOH phases.
Penn State Health is standing up a new self-scheduling platform to allow patients to enter demographic and clinical information through a cloud-based website. This information will be incorporated into our EHRs.
Patients contacting offices directly for vaccination information should be told that they will receive an email, text, phone call, or mailer that tells them when and how to schedule an appointment with Penn State Health for vaccination through the online app.
Communication to patients about how to schedule vaccine appointments should begin approximately mid-February.
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