Some Illinois doctors, including pediatricians, gearing up to offer COVID-19 vaccines in their offices
Some medical practices are hoping to soon offer COVID-19 vaccines in their offices, following Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s announcement Thursday that private doctors’ offices can now start ordering and administering the shots.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Thursday that doctor’s offices, including pediatricians, can now sign up to become eligible to receive doses. The approval process will take a week or two, she said.
Until now, people have been getting vaccines at mass vaccination sites run by the state and local health departments or at pharmacies. Many people have also been receiving shots through large health care providers, such as hospital systems. But even at the hospital systems, most have been vaccinated at clinics rather than in their usual doctors’ offices.
The announcement Thursday, which came just days before the Pfizer vaccine is expected to receive approval for use in children ages 12 to 15, should allow private doctors’ offices and small medical providers to order vaccines themselves. It may also open the door to more doctors offering the shots in their offices across the state, though challenges remain, such as the ultra-cold storage required for Pfizer vaccines.
Kids First Pediatric Partners in Skokie hopes to soon vaccinate adolescents in its office.
Kids First vaccinated about 250 patients, ages 16 and older, with the Pfizer vaccine, received from the Skokie health department, in late April in its office, said practice administrator Caitlin Feld. The practice invited parents of existing patients and those referred to them by the Skokie health department to make appointments for their kids to get shots.
Patients received their vaccines at stations set up in a multipurpose room in the office, about four families at a time, she said.
She expects the practice will likely use a similar strategy to vaccinate children ages 12 and older, once they become eligible and if Kids First can get more vaccine shipments.
“We know, especially with kids, they’re comfortable coming here,” Feld said.
DuPage Medical Group, which has about a million patients in the west and southwest suburbs, has been offering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines at three locations because of the refrigeration, storage and handling requirements of those vaccines, spokeswoman Maria McGowan said in an email.
As single-dose vaccines become more readily available to DuPage, it expects to be able to offer those in its offices, she said.
Advocate Aurora Health intends to offer vaccines in doctors’ offices “within the next few months,” hospital spoksman Mike Riopell said in a statement. For now, it’s working with state and local governments as it develops guidelines for setting up future clinics, “taking into consideration logistical issues such as security, cold storage and temperature monitoring.”
Though Lurie Children’s Hospital is preparing to give shots to kids ages 12 to 15 at its main downtown facility once they are eligible, it is still determining the feasibility of vaccinating kids at outpatient sites, said Dr. Larry Kociolek, pediatric infectious diseases physician at Lurie.
“We need to balance the need for widened vaccine access with risk of wasting doses if not all are used prior to expiring” because the pool of eligible children will still be relatively small and because Pfizer vaccines expire without cold storage, he said.
Dan Petrella contributed.
