NJAASC has curated authoritative information and a list of resources for our Membership’s reference. We will continue to update this as more information becomes available.
PAST COVID E-BLAST HAVE BEEN ARCHIVED DUE TO SPACE RESTRAINTS AND TO KEEP THINGS CURRENT.
IMPORTANT NEWS ON ASC VACCINES- NJAASC NEEDS YOUR HELP- PLEASE RESPOND!
As you know last week, the Department came out with vaccine locations and instruction for ASCs.
While appreciated, it was not what was expected, in particular the dearth of locations and the fact that we (ASCs) are in competition with other 1a providers for appointments.
While more sites will be coming on line in the next few weeks, the demand is high.
I expressed my concerns to the Department.
I was referred to the Office of Disaster Resilience, which is in charge of pods, vaccine sites and vaccines. I had a conference call with them on Thursday.
After discussion and explanation, they understand what we are and what we do, and agreed that something should be done specific for us.
To that end, I suggested that certain sites be designated specifically for ASCs and their personnel. That way we would not have to be in competition with anyone else for appointments and the vaccine. They agreed with this. However before we can move on it there are things that need to be done, and data they need. I already sent them a listing of all ASCs/RSPs by county so they have an idea of distribution.
What is needed from ALL of you is an idea of how many people are at of your centers, so they can determine how many sites are required, but most importantly how many doses of the vaccine they would need to reserve for ASCs.
So we need you to reply ASAP with this information- EVERYONE including RSPs. What we need is not just your W-2 employees, but essentially everyone that works in your center.
I insisted that there should be ‘coat tails’ to this. Meaning for instance your doctors that do cases- and their office staff, anesthesia, cleaning company- basically anyone who comes into your center. This is important as recent outbreaks at centers have generally not been from staff or patients, but others-like doctors who got it from their staff or elsewhere. So it behooves us to include EVERYONE. They agreed to this by the way.
We do not need an exact count mind you, a good estimate is fine. If you and your staff have already been vaccinated, please still reply and let us know that. I know that hospital partnered centers have already had this opportunity thru their hospital partner, so make sure that you reply to us as well.
We also need you to give us an estimate of how many of your staff would be willing to get the vaccine, out of the total you report.
This is another example of NJAASC helping ASCs, so please help us, help you!
Jeff Shanton
President, NJAASC
