News

(ELMA, WA) – Summit Pacific Medical Center is now unable to schedule any additional first doses of the vaccine until additional shipments of the vaccine are received. We are incredibly disappointed to be in this position. Three weeks ago, the State asked us to ramp up our capacity to vaccinate community members, and we have done that. However, the State’s distribution plan for vaccine has now changed. Vaccine that has been directed to hospitals is being redirected to support State-run mass vaccination sites.

Thus far, Summit has been very engaged in vaccinating the community. To date, we have received and allocated all 1,300 doses of vaccine. Individuals already scheduled for their booster appointments will still be able to receive their second doses. As additional vaccine arrives, our schedulers will call patients who have completed the intake form on our website to schedule their vaccine appointments. We ask that you refrain from calling, as our phone lines have been overwhelmed and those with urgent medical needs are unable to get through.

This reallocation from hospitals to mass vaccination sites has raised concern about trust and equity. We are hearing from our most vulnerable community members they may not be able to travel to a mass vaccination clinic or may not trust a clinic run or staffed by government or military officials. We have invested in developing resources that work for our community – scheduled appointments which are safer for elderly and medically fragile community members – to ensure people can access vaccine close to home from trusted providers.

We will be letting our community know today about these delays in scheduling, and explaining to them that without the vaccine allocation we had been counting on we are forced to stop scheduling new vaccination appointments at this time.

If the public has comments or questions about the vaccine distribution plan, we urge them to reach out to Governor Jay Inslee’s Office by calling (360) 902-4111 or send an email by visiting https://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/contact/send-gov-inslee-e-message.

Interested in a COVID-19 Vaccine, Please Fill out the Vaccine Intake Form

A centralized vaccine intake form has been created for all residents by Grays Harbor County Public Health Department and is available online at http://bit.ly/GHCVaccineIntake.

As information changes rapidly, we ask for your continued patience and to please watch for information shared on our social media pages, our website www.sp-mc.org, as well as information shared by Grays Harbor County Public Health Department and in the local media regarding additional vaccination locations.

We appreciate your continued support as we work to serve you and all the citizens of Grays Harbor County. Summit would also like to express gratitude to all our caregivers who continue to treat COVID-19 patients and others while also safely administering this vaccine.

View the full press release here.