Kansas ranks last in COVID vaccination rate, CDC says. Health officials disagree
Kansas is reporting the slowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country, but state health officials say that’s because of a lack of training in computer systems, not inefficiency.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database, updated Monday, placed Kansas last in vaccinations per capita. It said the state has received 131,750 doses of the coronavirus vaccine and administered just 20,110, the equivalent of only 690 doses administered per 100,000 residents.
The data presented Kansas as an extreme as vaccines nationwide have been distributed more slowly than expected, falling behind initial goals.
However, The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says the CDC description of Kansas doesn’t show the whole picture, and statewide health associations say they have heard no reports of vaccines not delivered or left to sit on shelves.
In an email to The Star, the agency’s spokeswoman, Kristi Zears, said vaccines have been distributed to all 105 counties in Kansas. Zears did not say how many vaccines had been administered.
The state has seen delays in reporting when those doses go into arms, she said, because many providers have not been trained in how to enter the information onto a federal database.
Dennis Kriesel, director of the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments, said vaccine providers need to record data in the federal Vaccine Finder, as well as KS Web ID, the same state software used to track typical childhood vaccines.
Since the systems don’t link together, Kriesel said, providers who do not know how to use the federal system are recording vaccination information only in the state system or marking it down on paper, planning to return and fill in the information later.
It is unclear whether Kansas’ struggles with vaccine reporting are unique or have been experienced by other states in recent weeks. Zears, the KDHE spokeswoman, did not immediately respond to questions regarding Kansas’ training practices or when data would be made available.
Cindy Samuelson, vice president of member and public relations at the Kansas Hospital Association, said she was surprised to see Kansas last on the CDC’s database.
“What you’re seeing on the data side does not reflect what we’re hearing around the state,” she said. “The experience we’re hearing is that we’re one of the few states that has been able to get vaccines into the hands of every county.”
Reporting in Kansas has lagged, Samuelson said, because the state has prioritized getting vaccines into arms over reporting of vaccinations.
Member hospitals struggled to log into online systems and pushed off entering data while continuing to administer vaccines, she said.
This experience was echoed by hospitals and health departments in the state.
In a statement to The Star, Johnson County health director Sanmi Areola said the county had already distributed “almost all” of its first 1,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine and is working through an additional 2,800 provided at the end of last week.
The University of Kansas Health System could not immediately provide the number of vaccines distributed but said it has administered its first shipment of the Pfizer doses and is currently administering Moderna vaccines. The hospital’s first employees to be vaccinated will get their second doses this week, said spokeswoman Jill Chadwick.
In a media briefing Monday, hospital officials said the efficiency is improving and will continue to improve.
“I think it’s just taking a while to get through those logistics to understand how much we’re going to have, when we’re going to have it,” said Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system.
In Wichita, Dr. Sam Antonios, the chief clinical officer at Ascension Via Christi, said the vaccinations have gone according to plan in the area. He said Via Christi has administered first doses of the vaccine to at least 3,000 people, and the hospital system began providing a second round of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday.
Antonios said Ascension Via Christi hasn’t had problems administering the first round of vaccines to health care providers.
But there have been some “glitches” in the reporting system to KDHE, he said.
“There have been a few issues with the interface system where you’re recording how much you’ve already vaccinated and you send that up to KDHE,” he said.
“I do think there were a few reporting issues, and it just takes time sometimes to go back and report out those doses (that weren’t reported previously),” he said. “It will all catch up eventually. It’s just a matter of time catching up the reporting.”
Antonios said data on the first round of vaccinations should be put in context.
“It’s important that we take into account that per-capita isn’t a great measure, because you’re talking about just health care providers, which is going to vary from state to state and is going to be a small minority of the population in any state,” he said. “… This is still early enough in the process that it’s difficult to tell what the data means.”
The bigger logistical challenges will come when the vaccine is available to everyone, he said.
“In a month or two, there will be enough vaccines for a lot more people. Every passing month, (reporting) will be less of an issue,” he said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Kansas ranks last in COVID vaccination rate, CDC says. Health officials disagree."
