CMA Survey of Physicians finds 75% Still Don’t Have Flu Vaccines for All Patients, 54% Haven’t Received Any
[Posted 11/17/05]

CMA this week released the results of its flu survey, which found that 75 percent of responding physicians had not received their full vaccine supply by November 3. Fifty-four percent of physicians reported that they had not received any vaccine at all.

At a press conference Tuesday at CMA headquarters in Sacramento, CMA and the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) urged public health officials to investigate this season’s vaccine distribution failures and ensure in the future that physicians get their vaccine supply before the “large box” retailers, including pharmacies and grocery stores. Such businesses have been dispensing shots since early fall.

“Despite being assured each year that supplies will be adequate and delivered to physicians on time, here we are again—we have high-risk, sick, and elderly patients being left unvaccinated,” says CMA CEO Jack Lewin, M.D. “This is intolerable. We need a fair, equitable, and efficient distribution system.”

Distribution has been sporadic, physicians report, with larger medical groups as well as high-volume distributors such as grocery chains receiving their supplies before private family physicians. The larger distributors are now reporting they are running out. “We have no quarrel with large distributors such as grocery stores and pharmacies giving shots, but these places should not have priority over your family doctor,” says Dr. Lewin. “All of this leaves patients confused, leading to fewer immunizations.”

Federal recommendations called for high-risk patients—the elderly, frail and those with chronic illness—to get their vaccinations by October 24 this year, with others following. But physicians report that even as the holiday season approaches, they have not been able to vaccinate their high-risk patients.

“This vaccine shortage has been especially bad for elderly and other vulnerable patients in rural California, where there are no chain stores,” says CAFP President Eric Ramos, M.D. “In more populated regions, these stores have no way of identifying who needs the vaccine most—they take all comers and that is bad for our most vulnerable patients.”

Dr. Ramos, who practices in Modesto, reported receiving just 10 doses of vaccine for his practice, which includes 1,500 high-risk patients.

CMA and CAFP encourage physicians to vaccinate all patients into January and February, as the flu season often peaks in late winter.

Click here to download the survey results.

Contact: Robin Flagg, 415/882-5110 or rflagg@cmanet.org.