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UPMC was a target Thursday during an online regional "town hall" conducted by Democratic state lawmakers for the organization's policy of vaccinating all employees --- not just those who interact with COVID-19 patients.
The policy would seem to violate the state's eligibility guidelines for Phase 1a of vaccine distribution, and the hospital organization should be held accountable, said Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny, and Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Allegheny.
While the policy may not align with the state Department of Health's vaccination plan, it's not technically illegal, according to a department expert participating in the town hall.
"We would certainly hope that all (providers) would follow the plan," said Wendy Braund, the department's COVID-19 response director. "But the bottom line is, there is no order that compels (hospitals) to abide by that plan, and that would give us the authority to enforce it."
The questioned policy actually makes sense, according to UPMC.
While the organization prioritizes "patient-facing frontline health care workers, (it then moves) through to other essential health care workers," eventually seeking to vaccinate all employees, because keeping them all safe from the coronavirus and thus able to work "is essential to our ability to continue providing (care)," wrote UPMC spokeswoman Danielle Sampsell in an email.
Workers who interact with COVID-19 patients aren't the only ones at risk of contracting COVID-19, as proven by the "vast majority" of staff exposures having occurred from worker interactions with their surrounding communities, according to Sampsell.
And all UPMC employees -- not just those who deal with patients -- are needed to keep the organization running, according to Sampsell, whose statement echoed an explanation given in a recent UPMC news conference.
The Phase 1a guidelines on the DoH website don't include hospital operations like billing clerks and administrators, at least not explicitly.
Rather, it lists various health care professions, including nurses, physicians, phlebotomists, pharmacists, "direct support professionals" and persons not directly involved in patient care but potentially exposed to infectious material that can transmit disease among or from health care personnel and patients.
The department ought to reach out to UPMC to share the news "that folks are concerned" about the UPMC policy, which doesn't abide by "the spirit or theory" of Phase 1a, said Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny.
"I'd be pleased to have that conversation," Braund said.
Even as UPMC drew criticism for expanding its conception of Phase 1a, as it applies to health industry workers, the state this week radically expanded 1A on another front -- adding people 65 and up and those 16 to 64 with health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19.
That expansion brings in about 3.5 million people, who join the state's 1 million health care workers, according to the department.
Still, the flow of vaccine doses delivered each week from the federal government has remained low, according to Cindy Findley, director of the department's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
"Minimum vaccine, maximum demand," Findley said.
That has resulted in people being unable to get vaccination appointments from providers whose locations and contact information are available on the department's new interactive vaccination map, lawmakers said.
About 400 providers have doses, but about 600 others who've signed up do not, indicated Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
The lack of vaccine is "the limiting factor," Padfield said.
The department is recommending that vaccination providers not open up unless they're sure they have enough doses available to handle the appointments they make, according to Findley.
The department is working to add a feature on its website that would enable people to add their names to a list so they can be contacted by "a live person" who would explain when and how they could get vaccinated, according to Braund.
"Patience is the key at this point," Padfield said.
Some states seem to be moving through 1a faster than Pennsylvania, lawmakers observed.
But that may largely be a reflection of Pennsylvania's high proportion of health care workers and seniors, compared to other states, according to officials.
Vaccines are being distributed to the states based on their populations, with no allowance for variations in the populations that qualify for 1a, according to Braund.
"It's going to get better," Padfield said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.