“Everyone agrees we should just get shots in arms.”
That’s the edict from Sharp Grossmont CEO Scott Evans.
The county of San Diego and its medical partners like Sharp HealthCare are vaccinating thousands of people a day at hospitals, super stations and pods. Evans said they’re trying to use every dose provided to each super site.
Each vial of COVID-19 vaccine can contain between 5 and 10 doses. Once a vial is opened, it must be used by a certain time or be thrown away. A county spokesman said officials have had to scramble on rare occasions when extra doses would have gone to waste, and have vaccinated officers with the San Diego and Chula Vista police departments.
“It’s a learning process,” Evans acknowledged.
The Sharp HealthCare CEO was working on Monday at a new East County vaccination super station that is set to open Tuesday in an old Charlotte Russe store in Grossmont Center in La Mesa. He said they’re working on ways to make sure every dose is used and never wasted.
“As we learn more and more about how to do that, it’s less and less and less likely that we have those type of situations,” Evans said.
Evans said any vaccination site could end up with a handful of extra doses at the end of the day because people might have missed an appointment or officials double-booked or simply got their math wrong. Either way, Evans said Sharp HealthCare is developing an electronic waitlist that could contact eligible people who registered for a vaccine but didn’t get an appointment.
“Try to get them connected to an appointment so that minimizes any unused vaccine,” Evans said.
Otherwise, Evans said, they are vaccinating super station volunteers at the end of the night.
“We hold them until the end of the night, and then there’s always more volunteers than vaccines,” Evans said.