North Kent News

Many Michigan residents are eager to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but hospitals are beginning to recognize problems within the systems that are designed to schedule those vaccinations.

The Lansing-based Sparrow Hospital has been criticized for running a limited clinic, which allowed Lansing’s mayor, Andy Schor, to be vaccinated, as well as city employees, before the general public, including those in the priority group.

Community partners -- like the city of Lansing, a food bank and school districts, among others -- received an invitation for any staff members to come to a small vaccine clinic if they were part of the 18 priority groups, including teachers, police and firefighters, according to John Foren, Sparrow spokesman. He said the hospital put the responsibility on the partner groups to ensure that only individuals in the priority group were eligible.  He also said that lab staff is too busy with paperwork and vaccinations to cast a critical eye and serve as the “vaccination police.”

Hillsdale Hospital allegedly offered leftover vaccines to faculty and staff of Hillsdale College, which skipped the priority population -- those in the community who are 65 and older. Hillsdale Hospital said that it received double the number of vaccinations that it had ordered, but the hospital gave some of the extra doses to long-term care facilities. And instead of stockpiling the vaccines, it offered doses to the college before the Jan. 6 announcement that the next in line for vaccinations would be residents in the 65-and-older category.

“When we had remaining vaccines, we had two choices: leave them in a freezer until the state moved tiers or come up with a plan to use them as quickly as possible,” hospital president and CEO J.J. Hodshire said, according to Bridge Michigan.

The state’s largest hospital system, Beaumont Health, had a surge of thousands of people sign up recently through randomized invitations that went to Beaumont online account holders to schedule appointments for vaccinations. Many of the people who used that link were not part of the state’s priority group.

When Beaumont learned of the backdoor loophole, it shut down the system and cancelled appointments -- approximately 2,700 of them. “We took the stance that it wasn’t fair to be cutting in line, no matter if you’re qualified or not,” Hans Keil, Beaumont’s chief information officer, told Bridge Michigan. “We’re trying to be really careful and have an ethical framework in that regard.”