WellSpan Health launched an online sign-up portal for COVID-19 vaccines on Jan. 19, the same day Pennsylvania expanded the first phase of its vaccine rollout plan. Within 48 hours the health system had scheduled 45,000 appointments and shut down the portal.
Barry Millhouse was able to schedule a February appointment for his 78-year-old mother at WellSpan York Hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in the past year and is considered high-risk.
Before reaching out to WellSpan, Millhouse contacted his motherâs doctors at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, where she had been previously hospitalized.
Their response left Millhouse frustrated and upset.
He said they told him they werenât going to be administering the vaccine to the public right now and that he should keep watching the news to see when and where to get vaccinated.
The stateâs interim rollout plan is currently in its fifth version.
No countywide plan or system has been announced to date on how vaccinations will work for people who are not medical professionals â there is no centralized point for information outside of some guidance on the Lancaster County government page.
The stateâs health department has been working closely with local departments of health to coordinate vaccine distributions and inoculations, building on the processes created since the pandemic response began in March.
However, because Lancaster County does not have a county health department, the responsibility to create a plan for vaccinations has primarily fallen to local hospital systems, other vaccine providers and community stakeholders.
COVID-19 vaccine providers in Lancaster County are facing unique challenges brought on by the pandemic as they race to inoculate the population.
Theyâve worked out how to coordinate vaccination clinics while keeping social distancing and other mitigation efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. In addition, the vaccine providers are dependent on a federally allocated number of doses and are required to follow state guidelines about who to vaccinate when.
Meanwhile, theyâre racing against time and daily increases in new COVID-19 cases and infection related deaths.
Nonetheless, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health alone has been able to administer nearly 600 shots on some days.
Local hospital s welcome the first babies of the new year!
Credit: Wellspan
WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon welcomed the first baby of 2021 in their health system network in southcentral Pennsylvania. Baby Girl Moyer was born 7 lb., 4 oz., 20 inches. Author: FOX43 Newsroom Updated: 5:08 PM EST January 1, 2021
LEBANON, Pa.
WellSpan Health:
WellSpan Health announced that just after midnight, at 12:06 a.m., WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon welcomed the first baby of 2021 in their health system network in southcentral Pennsylvania.
Baby Girl Moyer was born 7 lb., 4 oz., 20 inches.
This was the first baby born at WellSpan hospitals that have labor and delivery operations: