Enabling high quality care

March 19th Update on COVID-19 Vaccination Roll Out

Dear Members,
We are writing to provide you with an update from our united Primary Care COVID-19 Vaccination Collaborative (PC-VAC*). This week’s key messages that we shared with vaccine decision-makers can be found here.  

The projections from the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and Modelling Consensus update on COVID-19 Table on March 11 suggests that vaccination in long-term care has paid off but progress has otherwise stalled. There are increasing concerns about variants of concern (VOC) that are spreading across Ontario and our behaviour over the next few weeks will determine what our summer will look like.

However, given that VOCs make up nearly half of the confirmed cases being reported and there has been an increase in ICU numbers trending up, the Ontario Hospital Association and the Science Advisory Table have indicated that Ontario has entered a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Key Updates:

Primary Care Vaccination Pilot Community of Practice:
Together with Ontario Health (OH), the primary care associations have formed a Community of Practice to support those involved in vaccinations in these regions. Initially the CoP will include those participating in the pilot and will scale as other PHUs are included. If you are currently participating in the pilot and would like to join the CoP, you can register for the upcoming series of connecting calls here weekly Thursdays from 8 am to 9 am.

Resources are available on the Quorum Community Space Primary Care Vaccination Pilot CoP. If you have trouble signing up for Quorum, please message janine.theben@ontariohealth.ca for assistance.

COVaxON:
OntarioMD will be providing additional training and onboarding on COVaxON (the vaccine registration system) for clinical providers, initially focused on those who are directly involved in vaccine pilots, including support for technical questions that arise throughout the process. You can register for training directly. A Clinical Workflow Training recording is also available.

If you are beginning to participate in vaccine administration with your PHU and are not yet connected, below are OMD contacts by existing pilot site:

COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility EMR Searches
Version 1.0 of COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility EMR Searches are now available, created by the eHealth Centre of Excellence. This work is based on the Vulnerable populations and COVID-19 resource published by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and informed by the COVID-19: Vaccines Resource developed by the Centre for Effective Practice (CEP).

It aims to equip Primary Care with resources for your EMR which will enable you to identify and prioritize ambulatory patients from within your roster who are in greatest need of the COVID-19 Vaccination to avoid negative healthcare outcomes. Version 1.0 of the searches are all available to download right now from our Community site for all three EMRs.

IMPORTANT: The Province of Ontario has announced the focus for Phase Two of Ontario's vaccination distribution plan. The list of eligible health conditions provided in this announcement does not align with the Version 1.0 searches currently released by the eHealth Centre of Excellence. Their team is hard at work putting together Version 2.0 of our COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility EMR Searches which will align with the health conditions listed in the Province’s announcement.

COVID-19 Vaccination in Canada: an educational series for primary care professionals
“COVID-19 vaccination in Canada” is now certified for up to 1 Mainpro+® credits.  This self-learning series from DFCM and the Ontario College of Family Physicians is designed to provide primary care professionals with the knowledge and skills to support Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination effort. Added is a new module on viral vector vaccines that includes extensive information on the AstraZeneca vaccine and available information on the Janssen vaccine. There is also updated content throughout the series including on the vaccine rollout, dosing interval and more. To learn more and to register please click here.

The next COVID-19 Community of Practice for Ontario Family Physicians is on Friday, March 26th from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and will include dialogue with some of the family physicians involved in the AZ pilot sites. Click here to register.  Previous COVID-19 Community of Practice sessions can be found here.

New Resources:

Find resources from previous weeks here.

Finally, the OMA has relaunched its burnout survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on physician burnout. Physicians are invited to complete this 5-7 minute survey.

We look forward to continually updating you on the provincial vaccination strategy. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas.

Yours in good health,

The AFHTO Team

*Ontario Primary Care COVID-19 Vaccination Collaborative:

  • Alliance for Healthier Communities
  • Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario
  • Indigenous Primary Health Care Council
  • Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association/Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario
  • Ontario College of Family Physicians
  • Ontario Medical Association Section on General and Family Practice
  • Ontario’s Academic Chairs of Family Medicine
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COVID-19
Public health
government
Highlights
Care for Specific Populations
Measurement and Quality Improvement
Effective Use of EMRs