Schedule when offered the opportunity and other vaccine information

Dr. Marino, Tabitha Lieberman, and Doug Lewis, the IS leaders most closely connected to our clinical planning and VAV (validate and verify) vaccine tool, wanted to clarify questions we are receiving from our caregivers about vaccinations. Please review their memo from January 15, 2021.

From: PSJH IS Communications
Bcc: IS All Caregivers
Subject: Schedule when offered the opportunity and other vaccine information

IS caregivers,

On last week’s Jan. 7 Open Forum, we provided updates on our system vaccination progress and continuing COVID-19 response, including the military-style field surgical hospitals stood up by RESO in Southern California, which has been particularly hard-hit by recent upticks.

As Dr. Michael Marino and others shared, while our volumes continue to increase, the curve is slowly leveling and more of our COVID-19 patients are responding to treatments and surviving. Across our system, we are protecting our caregivers, with over half of our 125,000+ caregivers having received their first dose of the vaccination and 15 percent having received their second booster dose. Within IS, we are not far behind, with 53 percent of our caregivers having received their first dose, and the number receiving their second dose increasing daily.

We want to reinforce a few key messages.

Validate your information in the VAV tool if you have not already – vav.providence.org
Validating your information, level of exposure risk, and interest level in the IS-developed VAV (verify and validate) tool is the first step of making sure that our caregivers can receive their vaccinations as regions receive the allotments and as additional vaccine becomes available. The data you verify and enter allows you to be prioritized based upon your role, risk, and interest level.

If you receive an email or text communication saying that you can sign up for a vaccination, take advantage of the opportunity.
If you have a communication from Providence inviting you to sign up for a vaccination, know that it is intentional. While some of us may question whether we should decline the opportunity in order to “free up” vaccine for frontline caregivers, please rest assured the highest-priority caregivers with the most exposure risk have already received their opportunity to be vaccinated and what you are being offered is intended for you. We know there are frustrating variations in the timing of vaccinations – elderly family or higher-risk individuals in our households who may have not yet had their opportunity, but by getting the Providence-administered vaccination as a caregiver when you are invited, you help protect your family, your circle, and your community and help us get closer to herd immunity goals that will change the course of this pandemic. Vaccine distribution eligibility is based on local county public health recommendations, which is why shared services caregivers in other states or counties may not have received an invitation yet. Vaccine doses cannot be transferred to other sites or to help serve other populations, so we encourage caregivers to make an appointment when they are given the opportunity to make an appointment.

If you need work within a clinical facility for your job or project, but have not yet received an invitation to schedule your vaccination, there is an “exception process.”
If you have a need to work in a higher-exposure risk environment, but are still awaiting an invitation to schedule vaccination, please escalate to your IS pillar SVP or GVP.

If you live in a state that does not have a Providence facility, you will be notified about getting a Providence-administered vaccination if/when you need to come on-site to support one of our ministries.
We will make sure our caregivers who work in areas without Providence facilities are offered the vaccination as protection if they are asked to travel on-site to support one of our ministries. Otherwise, if you are working remote and living outside the areas served by our ministries, you will need to follow the local community or patient process where you live to receive your vaccination.

Stay on top of vaccine and pandemic-related news for your region by monitoring our Providence system communications
Every Wednesday, region-specific caregiver newsletters reach your inbox from system communications (sent from Providence Communications), containing important updates for your region. If you’re not seeing those newsletters, try looking in your Other (vs. Focused) tab of Outlook or checking your rules/filtering settings. Recently-shared resources we encourage you to check out are:

Vaccine update from Drs. Rod Hochman, Amy Compton-Phillips and Rhonda Medows

Providence FAQ on vaccination program (regularly updated)

CDC FAQ on the vaccines current available

There are no changes to the already-communicated guidance for IS caregivers who can to continue working remotely. As always, please keep up with the masking, social distancing and hand washing.

Thank you, and hope you can relax and reflect over the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend.