Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Health Care Providers

July 5, 2021

HPEPH Seeking Local Health Care Providers to Begin COVID-19 Vaccination Administration in Primary Care Clinics

Dear health care partners,

I am writing directly to thank you for your ongoing support and assistance as we work together to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. I know it has been an incredibly difficult time for all those in the health care sector. HPEPH is dedicated to continuing to build a strong relationship with local primary care providers, as we come through the pandemic and beyond. As we round a corner in the pandemic response, I am hopeful for the support of primary care providers as we plan for longer term delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in our community.

Transition to Community Based Vaccine Administration

In order to expedite vaccines to the general population as quickly as possible, public health has been holding mass COVID-19 immunization clinics across the region. The province has recognized that as community vaccination rates increase and we move into the fall of 2021, administration of COVID-19 vaccine will shift away from high throughput channels such as mass immunization clinics, and there will be enhanced reliance on primary care and community-based administration of vaccinations.

COVID-19 Vaccine Administration in Primary Care Setting Essential for Ongoing Community Immunity

The support of primary care practitioners is essential to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccination opportunities, paired with the timely opportunities to consult with a primary care provider, is available to all residents. As the majority of community members have received a first dose of vaccine, we recognize that those who are not yet vaccinated may be hesitant, or have questions about their own risk or health conditions. Primary care is the first and largest point of contact most residents have with the health care system. This community access to health care providers is critical to ensure the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination are communicated to individuals who are uncertain about the benefits of the vaccine, or those who may not be comfortable in a mass immunization clinic setting.

HPEPH is seeking local health care providers interested in onboarding to begin COVID-19 vaccine administration in your practice, effective immediately. To indicate your interest and support the COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout in our community:

1. Review and complete the COVID-19 Vaccine Readiness Checklist.

2. To become an authorized vaccination site, submit the completed checklist, to indicate your interest in administering COVID-19 vaccination to VPDCalendar@hpeph.ca.

3. Once authorized as a COVID-19 vaccination site, complete HPEPH’s vaccine order form as needed to support vaccine delivery in your practice.

COVID-19 Vaccine Records and Data Sharing

We recognize that streamlined reporting and sharing of patient vaccination data presents challenges for primary care providers. The Ministry of Health and OntarioMD are collaborating to provide patient COVID-19 vaccination information to physicians and other healthcare providers. Currently:

1. COVID vaccination data is available for individual patients through the provincial clinical viewers, Connecting Ontario and Clinical Connect. Additional information about this option is available at eHealthOntario.ca. Access to the viewers can be requested via Ontario Health’s Digital Health Service’s website. This data is available effective immediately.
   
   How can this be used in your primary care setting?
   The clinical viewers are ideal for accessing information about individual patient COVID-19 vaccination status and could be accessed to review COVID-19 immunization needs when patients call to schedule appointments for alternate health concerns.

2. Beginning mid-July 2021, primary care providers who are part of a patient enrollment model (PEM) will be provided with an online tool to help identify patients in their practice that have received a COVID-19 vaccine, including vaccine type/brand and date(s) received. A ONE® ID account is required to access the report. Applicable PEMs include FHO, FHG, FHN, or CCM. To ensure you have access to these reports when they become available:

   Ensure your ONE® ID account is set up:
   1. Log in to your ONE® ID account
   2. If you do not have a ONE® ID account, physicians need to log in to the CPSO members portal to self-register. For instructions on completing your ONE® ID self-registration, refer to the ONE® ID CPSO Registration Guide
   3. ONE® ID account support: call Ontario Health Digital Support Desk at 1-866-250-1554 or email OH-DS_servicedesk@ontariohealth.ca

   How can this be used in your primary care setting?
   Once the online tool is up and running, primary care providers can use it to proactively identify and reach out to patients who require a COVID-19 vaccine.

Questions regarding access to the upcoming Primary Care Vaccination Reports can be submitted to: OHQO_PrimaryCare@ontariohealth.ca

We do understand that the data sharing options listed above do not fully address the concerns we heard from primary care about the need for improved access to vaccination records. We continue to raise the importance of efficient data sharing in discussions with our provincial partners. The province is also working to implement additional tools to improve efficiency of patient data sharing. These include:

• The Health Report Manager (HRM), which pushes data prospectively to physicians. If the physician name has been collected through COVaxON at point of vaccination, HRM will start to push the complete history of COVID vaccination events to physicians based on patient rostering (Implementation date is TBD as this is contingent on patients reporting up to date physician information).
• Pilots are currently underway with a few EMR vendors to receive COVaxON data into their EMRs via the Digital Health Drug Repository. Although this solution provides information directly into the physician's EMR, it requires a long-term implementation approach as EMR vendors must include the development, test and deployment of this feature into their product roadmap. Implementation date is TBD.

I would like to reassure you that we are working diligently to address these gaps. In the meantime, we are hopeful to begin onboarding primary care partners to begin the transition of COVID-19 vaccination to the primary care setting and ensure ongoing and convenient access to vaccines to all members of the community.

Any questions about onboarding for primary care providers can be addressed to Alisha Hanes, at ahanes@hpeph.ca or (613) 403-1823. HPEPH looks forward to working with you and your teams to support this transition.

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: hart.sara@hpeph.ca

To report communicable diseases:613-966-5500 x349

To report AEFI or DOPHS: Online / Fax: 613-966-1813 or CDCFAX1@hpeph.ca

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