Penn State Health expands employee vaccinations, adds unaffiliated health care provider clinics
Penn State Health is expanding its employee COVID vaccinations to the third tier on Jan. 7, enabling staff with transient patient encounters to schedule their vaccination. Vaccine clinics will coordinate with leaders and employees to fill available vaccine appointments for the rest of this week. Plans for email invitations for all tier 3 staff to self-schedule appointments are underway.
The health system has also begun the process of allocating a percentage of its vaccine stock to eligible community health care and emergency medical services providers not affiliated with the health system. The vice presidents of medical affairs and medical leaders within Penn State Health are working with outside providers to offer vaccine scheduling opportunities for these important community partners at Hershey Medical Center, Holy Spirit Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center. The vaccination clinics will begin Monday, Jan. 11.
As with Penn State Health’s employee vaccination clinics, the vaccines will be given by appointment only.
Since mid-December, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has been providing varying quantities of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Penn State Health’s three medical centers. On Dec. 30, it issued a directive calling for hospitals throughout Pennsylvania to allocate 10% of their vaccine supplies received on or after Jan. 6 to vaccinate nonaffiliated health care personnel. The health system’s three medical centers will schedule community provider appointments based on their vaccine inventory each week.
The allocation is not expected to affect the availability of vaccines for Penn State Health and College of Medicine staff. The health system plans to move to the fourth and final tier early next week, when staff who have no patient contact will be able to schedule their vaccinations. Additionally, employees who were offered the vaccine in an earlier tier and did not opt in at that time are encouraged to schedule an appointment now.
As of Jan. 6, Penn State Health had administered more than 8,000 vaccines across the health system. Employees who wish to receive the vaccine should be responsive when they receive an email to self-schedule.
For information about the COVID vaccine and how it is being allocated to Penn State Health and College of Medicine staff, see the Employee COVID-19 FAQs.
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