Tampabay: Health care company beats the flu shot shortage

Health care company beats the flu shot shortage

Maxim Health Systems ordered the hard-to-get vaccine back in January.

By WES ALLISON

So your doctor and the health department have told you of the shortage of flu vaccine and you can't get it until perhaps November. Then you hear it's available at some local stores, for $12 a shot.

What's up with that?

Free enterprise, and good planning.

Maxim Health Systems, a Baltimore-area health care giant, already has distributed about a half-million doses of the flu vaccine at grocery stores nationally in the past two weeks, including Publix and Winn-Dixie in Florida, while most doctor's offices and clinics remain flu shot-free.

Maxim, which provides a variety of immunizations as well as home health care and temporary nurses, ordered its supply of the flu vaccine way back in January, and orders are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, said Tom Rawlings, the Southeast regional controller for Maxim.

"The demand down there has just been incredible," he said.

Nationally, production of the flu vaccine was slowed because manufacturers had trouble growing one of the strains of the influenza virus that make up this season's vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there should be enough to go around, but it won't be available most places until November.

The CDC has recommended that high-risk patients -- primarily the elderly and people with serious health conditions -- get the vaccine first, because they're most likely to develop complications from the flu. Some 20,000 Americans die from the flu every year.

Rawlings said Maxim can't legally turn anyone away, but it posts the high-risk criteria in hopes younger, healthier people will step aside. Medicare Part B, a mainstay for many seniors, will pay for the shots. Other mass suppliers offer them, too.

That does little for folks like Catherine Harris, 74, of Seminole. She has emphysema, plus back and leg problems, and has always tried to get her flu shot before Oct. 30, as is recommended.

But her doctor doesn't have any, and she's not robust enough to stand in lines at a Publix, said her son, Carl Harris. Several people called the Times with similar complaints in the past two weeks.

"People are concerned. This is a very important issue," Harris said. "And if it is available, it should be available to doctors so they could make these appointments and get it to these people who need it."

But even good planning has limits: Maxim says its suppliers cannot keep up with demand, and after Saturday it will suspend the shots until Nov. 11, with another hiatus a week later.

"We wish we had more," Rawlings said. "I know there's a lot of people who are anxious to get it, but we can't get everybody."