Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
Sandy Kimmey arrived carrying a lawn chair and blanket.
Both came in handy as she nursed her baby during a two-hour wait for H1N1 vaccinations for her children earlier this month at Omaha Burke High School.
From the suburbs to south Omaha, thousands have waited in lines that snaked for blocks at public vaccination clinics in Douglas County. The long waits have frustrated and surprised parents accustomed to making appointments for health care, not dealing with long lines, crying babies and tired legs.
“It seemed very Third World,” said Kimmey, who lives in Omaha.
Some parents have headed to the public clinics because their family doctors or pediatricians had not received or had run out of the vaccine.
Some physicians have found it frustrating to have to turn away patients wanting vaccine.
County health officials say that with limited doses, the public clinics have been an effective way to provide the vaccine to a big population of the people most at risk. The free vaccines at the clinics also help families without insurance or a doctor to turn to for a shot, the county says.
County officials say they plan to continue offering public clinics, even if sufficient doses become available to make the vaccine available to people who are not in high-risk groups.
Dr. Anne O'Keefe of the Douglas County Health Department said she knows people are frustrated.
“I don't blame them,'' she said. “We are doing our best to get (vaccine) to the most people.”
Other health departments in the region — including Pottawattamie County in Iowa and the Central District Health Department based in Grand Island, Neb. — have offered similar public clinics.
But there have been different strategies. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department is offering flu clinics where people make appointments. Most people are finished within 15 minutes, said Bruce Dart, health department director.
O'Keefe said Lincoln's health department, unlike Douglas County's, runs a big primary care clinic year-round, which makes it easier to offer H1N1 vaccines by appointment. Dart agreed that his health department has the space and staff to make offering appointments more workable.
The availability of the vaccine has been limited, here and nationally.
Nebraska so far has received only about one-third of the roughly 1 million doses that officials hope it will get this season. Iowa's vaccine supply also has been limited.
Douglas County has received about 97,000 doses for the 267,000 people in the county who are in priority groups, which include children and young adults.
Health care workers also are a priority group. Douglas County health officials say that with two university medical centers and other big hospitals, the county's supply of vaccine has been particularly stretched.
The county has been supplying some vaccine to pediatricians and other doctors in the community, but there hasn't always been enough to keep up with patient demand.
Boys Town pediatric clinics, for example, have received about 3,000 doses and would need a total of 16,000 for their patients, said Pat Allgeier, a clinic administrator.
Dr. Robert Beer, an independent family physician in Omaha, said earlier this fall it was hard for him to get vaccine for his patients, but recently he's had a good supply. He said the public clinics have served to vaccinate a lot of people in a relatively short period of time.
Dr. Edward Kolb, a pediatrician and anesthesiologist with Boys Town National Research Hospital, said the county should consider giving more of the available vaccine to pediatricians and family practice doctors.
Kolb took two of his children to a recent vaccination clinic at Millard North High School — but they didn't stay, because of the long line, cold and drizzle.
“That might be OK for buying concert tickets or the next video game, but is it really the way we want to deliver health care?” Kolb said.
O'Keefe said that the flow of vaccine from the state is starting to improve, which should help the county provide more vaccine to doctors' offices.
Kimmey took her three children to the clinic at Burke in early November because the vaccine wasn't available at her pediatrician's office.
She nursed her 3-month-old baby in line and, when she was finished, loaned her lawn chair to a pregnant woman. She loaned her blanket to a teenage girl wearing a T-shirt in the chilly weather.
Maria Wollen took her 19-month-old daughter to a recent flu clinic at Omaha South High and waited two hours for the vaccine.
Wollen said that while the clinic wasn't ideal, it was well run and orderly. People in line, for example, received consent forms they could fill out while they waited, to speed up the process.
Wollen said she and her husband were willing to wait as long as necessary to get their daughter the protection the vaccine provides.
“We are going to do what we have to do.''
Contact the writer:
444-1122, michael.oconnor@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
