Nursing homes lack flu vaccine

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Oct 13, 2004 | by Rindfleisch, Terry

La Crosse area health officials are trying to figure out how to get the flu vaccine to nursing home residents.

Nursing homes in the area have no vaccine, but their residents are at the highest risk for flu complications because of age and chronic medical conditions, said Doug Mormann, director of the LaCrosse County Health Department.

"We have to make sure the nursing home population is served," he said.

Public health officers from LaCrosse and surrounding counties and officials from Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp Healthcare met Tuesday to discuss flu vaccine supplies and needs. They are trying to determine the needs of nursing homes and the number of high-risk people who meet the new guidelines for the flu vaccine.

No one knows when, or if, the vaccine will be available to nursing homes.

The two medical centers have most of the flu vaccine available in the La Crosse area, and they will be immunizing their highrisk patients and health-care workers at clinics and hospitals in their healthcare systems.

John Johnson, Franciscan Skemp's director of pharmacy services, and Marilyn Michels, director of infection control at Gundersen Lutheran, said they have enough flu vaccine for their high-risk patients and health-care workers.

Michels said high-risk people should make appointments now to get their shots at medical clinics because the vaccine probably won't be available later this year.

La Crosse area health officials are following the new CDC guidelines that the vaccine should be reserved for babies and toddlers ages 6 to 23 months; people 65 or older; anyone with a chronic condition such as heart or lung disease; pregnant women; nursing home residents; children on aspirin therapy; health care workers who care for high-risk groups; and anyone who cares for or lives with babies younger than 6 months.

State health officials are planning to supply vaccine to public health departments for children ages 6 to 23, Mormann said. But La Crosse area health officials still are not sure if the highrisk people who want the vaccine will get it. Most high-risk people, if physically able, can go to their physicians for flu shots, they determined.

Health officials also were trying to decide Tuesday which health-care and daycare workers should be the highest priority. Michels said health-care workers should get the vaccine if they spend 15 minutes with a high-risk patient and work within three feet of the patient.

Beth Johnson, Vernon County public health officer, said the flu vaccine is difficult to find in Vernon County. "We're in bad shape," Beth Johnson said "We don't have any vaccine to give out."

Gloria Wall, Crawford County's public health officer, has no vaccine, but she said Crawford County is fortunate to have medical clinics operated by Franciscan Skemp and Gundersen Lutheran in Prairie du Chien, Wis.

The mass flu immunization clinic Saturday at the La Crosse Center drew about 500 high-risk people. Laura Gambino, public health nursing supervisor for La Crosse County Health Department, said she ordered 4,900 doses of the flu vaccine and received 1,500 for the mass clinic. She said she is expecting 3,000 more doses in two shipments.

"We don't know what's going to happen, but our nursing homes have to be the first priority," Gambino said.

Scarce resources

The government moved Tuesday to direct remaining flu shots straight to pediatricians, nursing homes and other places that care for the patients who need them most. But only a fraction of the 22.4 million doses that maker Aventis Pasteur has yet to ship can be diverted to areas with the biggest shortages. And officials acknowledged Tuesday that even if planned rationing goes well, there will be high-risk patients who struggle to get shots but can't find them.