Regular (non-H1N1) flu shots arrived!

We received the last shipment of our doses of regular (seasonal, non-swine, whatever you want to call it) flu shots. We have injectable for all ages (no nasal spray). This is a commercial shipment (for insurances such as Aetna, Excellus, MVP, etc) and cannot be used for patients with state-subsidized insurances (Child Health Plus, Medicaid, Blue Choice Option – this vaccine ships separately to us from the state).  If you are interested in one, please call the front office at 426-4100 to make a nurse visit. Do NOT call the H1N1 line as we are keeping the two operations separate. We especially recommend this for any of our patients with high risk conditions (asthma, diabetes, etc) who have not yet received a seasonal flu shot. It is unclear how much the seasonal flu will circulate this winter, so it is still important to get protected.

Out of H1N1

We have booked appointments for all of our current supply of H1N1 vaccine. I will post again when we receive more supply from the state. If you have an appointment please keep that appointment. Thank you for your understanding and patience during this process!

New email subscription service

You’ll see that we have a new email subscription box on the side.  Our email subscription had been through Feedburner, but now WordPress has it’s own subscription service.  It is nice because it allows you, the user, to decide how often you want updates (daily digest, immediate email at the time of a post, etc).  I will run both services for a while but will eventually shut the other off.  So if you have been subscribed by email, please resubscribe using the box to the right!  I will send another warning when I’m going to switch for good.  You can unsubscribe to your messages from Feedburner within the email that comes to you.

H1N1 appointment line open at 10am

Hi all!  Hope your thanksgiving was full of family and food.  Our phone line will be open again at 10am-2pm weekdays this week as supply allows.  Currently we only have injectable vaccine for 4 years old and up.  I will post as supply changes.

H1N1 line closed until Monday Morning

Our H1N1 shot phone line will be closed for the holidays until Monday morning, November 30th at 10am.  We will be booking more appointments for the shot (still no spray) for kids 4 years old and up.  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s supply, and scoop on second doses

Today all we have remaining is doses of the injectable vaccine for 4 years old and up.  Good news is the injectable is OK for anyone regardless of underlying health conditions.  Phones will open at 10am as usual.

Many people who have gotten their first dose either here or at the public health clinics have been asking about the second (booster) doses.  These are suggested for all kids under the age of 9 or 10 (depending on whose guideline you follow).  It has to be a minimum of 28 days after the first dose, but there is no maximum, so it can be several months between them without problem.

All of this assuming supply is plentiful, which currently is not the case.  Therefore, in fairness we will be focusing on getting as many people as possible their first dose and will not be scheduling second doses for now.  I will post a message when supply has increased to the extent that we can start offering the booster dose; this won’t likely be for another 1-2 months.

Out of H1N1 nasal spray

If you kids hate needles, sorry!  Our doses of the nasal spray H1N1 vaccine are now all currently booked.

Small supply of injectable for 4y and older is in

We just got a small supply in of injectable H1N1 for 4 years old and up.  This CAN be used for kids with asthma or wheezing.  I’m not going to get into the habit of listing the size of every shipment, but just as an example, this shipment was 50 doses.  It will likely be spoken for by the end of the day.  So this is why the posts seem to be so fast and furious, because the small shipments mean the situation changes quickly!  I’ll keep you posted…

Article today about local H1N1 supply

democratandchronicle.com | Rochester RocEarth – Get Informed | Democrat and Chronicle.

FYI, thought this was interesting.  We are certainly in the same boat; for a practice of over 5,000 patients we have received less than 500 doses of vaccine to this point.  This is expected to improve over the next month, and we expect to continue vaccinating our patients well into the new year.

H1N1 – ONLY flumist now!

We have booked all of our H1N1 shots except for the Flumist (nasal spray) version.  So this means at this point we can only take appointments for children who are a) 2 years old or older, and b) do NOT have a history of asthma or wheezing.  When new supply comes in for other forms I will let you know.