COVID testing after vaccine

Last Updated January 19th, 2021 at 6:32 p.m.

Dr. Zain Chagla, St. Joe’s infectious disease physician and medical director of Infection Control, provides this information for those staff who have been vaccinated: there is still a risk of acquiring COVID before or on the day of vaccination, and although some side effects may be expected with the vaccine, there is still a risk those symptoms are active COVID-19.

Staff experiencing symptoms after vaccination that would make them identify positive on our symptom screen should contact Occupational Health for next steps, and arrange for testing. 

Staff are also reminded that if you identify positive on the app, you should contact occupational health to arrange next steps, prior to entering the building.

Province directs ceasing the administering of first doses of COVID-19 vaccine due to supply issue

Last Updated January 17th, 2021 at 9:22 p.m.

Due to a slowdown in supply of the Pfizer vaccine, Hamilton Public Health and Hamilton hospitals have been directed by the provincial government to stop administering first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone other than staff and residents of Long-term Care homes, and high-risk retirement homes.

This measure is temporary. Based on the current schedule of vaccine shipments to Hamilton, we expect to resume distribution of first doses to hospital healthcare workers by late February or early March.

This is incredibly disappointing news for all of us, and not what we were planning, or had informed our staff at St. Joe’s. For those who have already received the first dose, second doses of the vaccine continue to be scheduled, and we are working hard to ensure that all second doses of the vaccine are delivered within the timelines identified in the product monograph for the vaccine.

We understand this is a disheartening development.

Please know the work you are doing every day is valued and recognized, and our community is better for it.

We will continue to keep you informed.

Status update: COVID-19 vaccination for hospital workers

Last Updated January 13, 2021

As of January 13^th at 12:00 p.m., over 1,200 St. Joe’s staff, physicians and learners from the first group have received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Our goal is to complete vaccinations for the first group within the next week based on anticipated vaccine supply. The staff booking appointments for the clinic are working as diligently as possible to schedule individuals from the first group.

We are on track to have all hospital staff, physicians and learners vaccinated by the end of March based on anticipated vaccine supplies.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to work at the clinic and attended their appointment to receive the vaccine.

Sign up to receive a vaccine

Over 3,900 staff, physicians and learners from St. Joe’s have signed up for a vaccine appointment so far. We are asking all staff, physicians and learners sign up for the vaccine online at www.stjoes.ca/HCWcovidvaccine. You will be asked to select which of the four groups you fit into. We ask that you read the criteria for each group carefully before making your selection.

The four groups will be done in order. As more vaccines are made available, more people will be vaccinated.

You will be contacted about the time of your appointment when your name is selected. We remind everyone that calls from the clinic may appear as “UNKNOWN NUMBER/CALLER” on your phone.

The clinic is by appointment only. No walk-ins are allowed.

Expanding COVID-19 vaccine among hospital healthcare workers

Last updated January 5, 2021

Hamilton’s two hospital systems continue to work with the province to ensure that frontline healthcare workers get prompt access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Getting vaccinated can help reduce the chance of getting ill with COVID and the possibility of severe medical complications from the infection. It also helps protect the people around us – our patients, co-workers and our families – and benefits the whole community

What’s new

Approximately 300 hospital staff and physicians from St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) and Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) have already received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Vaccination has been focused on staff of long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes (RH), who care for an extremely vulnerable population, to help stabilize that workforce and population.

Provincial guidance indicates that once LTC and RH workers are vaccinated, any unused doses may be allocated to healthcare workers (HCW) at high risk of workplace COVID exposure in hospitals, and HHS and SJHH healthcare workers have been receiving these “residual” vaccine doses.

Vaccination planning for hospital healthcare workers

The plan is to significantly increase the number of vaccines given to hospital healthcare workers, while continuing to provide vaccines to LTC and RH staff. HHS and SJHH are together working to schedule our staff, physicians, residents and learners for vaccinations beginning January 7.

The government’s goal is to have all hospital healthcare workers (staff, physicians and residents/learners) vaccinated by the end of March. The plan being rolled out by HHS and SJHH will accomplish this based on anticipated vaccine supplies. 

Hospital healthcare workers will receive the vaccine based on the government’s ethical and prioritization frameworks, in this order:

• Priority 1: those at highest risk of COVID exposure at work
• Priority 2: those working with vulnerable patients at high risk
• Priority 3: those working in all other clinical areas (patient facing)
• Priority 4: all other hospital workers.

What you need to do

Here’s what you need to do: 

• We are asking every hospital healthcare worker to sign up for the vaccine
• You can sign up online now.
• You will be asked about which of the four priority groups you fit into. Find out more here. [INSERT LINK]
• The four priority groups will be done in order. As more vaccines are made available, more people will be vaccinated.
• Healthcare workers from each priority group will be placed into a randomized selection process (lottery) to determine who will get the vaccine each day.
• You will be contacted for scheduling when your name is selected.

It’s important to note that everyone who wants to get the vaccine will get it. We expect that those in the highest priority group will receive the vaccine in January. Staff and physicians in the second priority group will get it in January or February. Those in the third and fourth priority groups should receive it in February or March.

What you need to know

Here’s what you need to know:

• If you are selected and do not accept the appointment, or miss the appointment, you will be put back into the randomized process.
• Some people will get appointments during their shifts, some will get them on their days off.
• We encourage everyone to take the appointment you are given to get the vaccine as quickly as possible.
• Units will support the timing of these appointments as much as possible.

We recognize this may not be a perfect system, but it is the best way to ensure healthcare workers caring for the most vulnerable patients, are vaccinated against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

Vaccination timelines

Beginning January 7, all individuals from the highest priority group who have signed up, will be put through a randomized selection process. When the clinic is running at full capacity, potentially as many as 750 staff, physicians and residents from SJHH and HHS will be vaccinated daily. That process will be repeated each day until every person who has signed up in this first priority group receives the vaccine.

Each priority group will follow, with timelines based on vaccine supply and adjusted based on any changes in provincial guidelines. Dependent upon the clinic’s capacity and individuals’ ability to attend the clinic, there may be days where the system will pull names of staff/physicians from a lower priority group. This is to ensure we do our very best to use all the clinic bookings.

Regardless of where you are in the priority groups, we ask that you sign up now, since we want to go through these groups as quickly as possible, and may be adding those from other phases at any point.

Residual doses and “standby” list

Additionally, there will continue to be residual doses of the vaccine at the end of each day, and we will be calling some people on the standby list at the last minute to ensure there is no waste of the vaccine, so that we can vaccinate our hospital workers as quickly as possible.

We anticipate that all hospital staff, physicians and learners who wish to receive the vaccine, will get an appointment by the end of March.

Additional information

Vaccination is highly recommended for all staff, physicians, residents and learners for whom the vaccine is deemed safe. However, receiving the vaccine is voluntary.

Click here to download, print and read the consent form. You will be asked to sign the consent form on site.

If you have any questions about receiving the vaccine, please connect with your healthcare provider in advance. If you have additional questions, the clinicians at the vaccination clinic will be available.

Please remember to bring your health card to your vaccination appointment.

More information on COVID-19 vaccination process for staff and physicians is available in this FAQ document. [INSERT LINK]

Hospital workers begin receiving vaccine

Last Updated December 31, 2020

The rollout for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine began just over a week ago in Hamilton and beginning this weekend the Hamilton COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic will operate seven days/week. The clinic is being operated by Public Health, Hamilton Health Sciences, primary care physicians, Hamilton Paramedic Services, and St. Joe’s.

Workers in long-term care facilities and retirement homes are the first priority group for the vaccine, as directed by the prioritization framework developed by the Province of Ontario. Some of our St. Joe’s staff working in long-term care have received the vaccine, and more will over time.

When a vaccine dose cannot be administered or there are doses of the vaccine left over each day, these are referred to as residual doses. To ensure all doses of the vaccine are used, there is a plan in place for residual doses to be shared between St. Joe’s and Hamilton Health Sciences staff and physicians.

Based on provincial guidance, healthcare workers in acute care settings such as hospitals with the most direct, frequent or sustained contact with patients who are COVID positive, are the highest priority for the residual doses. Currently, for the first few days of the clinic’s operations, staff and physicians (including residents) from COVID Unit and ICU units are the targeted recipients of the residual doses. If there are more volunteers in the priority groups than residual doses available on a given day, a process of random allocation is used to ensure the process is fair and equitable.

To date, 51 staff, physicians or learners at St. Joe’s have received the first dose of the vaccine through this residual dose process.

As the steady supply of vaccine increases, so too will access to receive it. Everyone who wants the vaccine will get it. This is a voluntary process, following government mandated priority and ethical guidelines. While the coming weeks will bring more doses of the government-approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as well as the Moderna vaccine, it will take months for all healthcare workers to receive the vaccine. The current estimated timelines from the government have HCW vaccination taking until the end of March. 

The vaccine rollout is good news as we enter 2021.

First Hamilton COVID-19 vaccines given

Pictured above: Merdina Nangle-Palmer, a personal support worker, receives the vaccine from Dr. Kati Ivanyi.

This is an important day for all of us in Hamilton, as the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered today in Hamilton to approximately 30 of the City’s long-term care workers.

This follows last week’s provincial announcement that Hamilton would be among the 17 regions receiving doses of the new vaccines. This is a partnership of Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton Public Health, Hamilton Paramedic Services, Primary Care, and St. Joe’s.

The first clinic is not open to the general public and will operate by appointments only for healthcare workers and essential caregivers who work in hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes and other congregate settings caring for seniors. In Hamilton, workers in long-term care facilities are the first priority group, as directed by the prioritization framework developed by the Province of Ontario.

There may be a few residual doses (perhaps 5-10) available each day because people who were scheduled to receive the vaccine couldn’t do so. This may result in a few hospital workers identified each day to receive any remaining vaccine to ensure all of the vaccine available is utilized. Based on provincial guidance, healthcare workers with the most direct, frequent or sustained contact with patients who are COVID positive, get a higher priority for the residual doses.

In the first few weeks of the vaccination program, those who work on the dedicated COVID units (medicine and ICU) will receive these residual doses, prioritized on most direct COVID-19 exposure. If there are more volunteers in these priority groups than doses available on a given day, a process of random allocation will be used to ensure the process is fair and equitable.

It will likely take months for everyone at St. Joe’s who wishes to receive a vaccine, to actually be inoculated. This is simply due to the fact that very few doses are available across the country yet.

We will continue to work with provincial partners to ensure that everyone, particularly those in higher risk areas, receive the vaccine as soon as possible. In the meantime, it is essential that all of us continue to follow public health safety guidelines by masking, distancing and continuing other PPE rules and policies.

For more information please go to these Frequently Asked Questions for our healthcare workers.

This website for clinicians is also a good source of information.

Thank you again to everyone at St. Joe’s for the incredible work you do every day to care for our patients and our community.