CHAPTER AFFAIRS By Gregory K. Griggs, MPA, CAE NCAFP Executive Vice President
~ FIGHTING FOR YOU ~
Fighting for Family Medicine and The COVID-19 Vaccine AAFP coined the phrase “Fighting for Family Medicine” and I especially like it in the age of COVID. It seems we have had to fight for your rightful place in every step of this pandemic: in PPE distribution, in financial assistance, in testing, and now in vaccine distribution. But that has made me, and your entire NCAFP staff, even more determined to fight for our members. So, let me take the opportunity to outline some of the ways we have advocated for your role in both receiving and disseminating the COVID-19 vaccine. On December 18th, your incoming and outgoing President (Dr. Jessica Triche and Dr. David Rinehart, respectively), wrote a letter to North Carolina State Health Director Dr. Betsey Tilson and NC Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, MD. The key messages in the letter included: Family physicians are exposed to COVID-19 in their office daily, whether through known positive patients or unknowingly when a patient is there for another visit but subsequently tests positive. As a result, it is imperative that family physicians and their staff receive the vaccine as quickly as possible. I hope that by
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the time you receive this magazine, we will be beyond vaccinating family physicians. Family physicians should receive the vaccine quickly whether they work in a health system or a private community clinic. Secretary Cohen ultimately sent several strongly-worded directives to our state’s health systems stating that they also bore responsibility for helping vaccinate community physicians, not just their own employees. We subsequently worked with many of our private practices to connect them to health systems or health departments to receive the vaccine. Family physicians are ideally suited to vaccinate their own patients. They know who in their office fits into which risk stratification phase and are equipped at dealing with vaccine hesitancy due to the trusting relationship they have with their patients. Also, in December, AAFP sent similarly-worded letters to federal health officials and the National Governor’s Association. Through late December and early January, we remained in touch with North Carolina health officials, constantly bringing their attention to problems that family physicians were having. This included numerous phone calls and e-mails, even on Christmas Eve. In early January, the Department shifted some resources to begin unclogging the bottlenecks in order to move vaccines into the hands of primary care practices for your patients. As of writing this column in mid-January, quantities of vaccine were still not available for distribution beyond centralized locations (such as health departments and health systems), but much work was under way to prepare for more distribution sites as supplies became more available. Just as an example, in the week ending January 9, the state of North Carolina had only received about 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer Continues on next page
The North Carolina Family Physician
