Study reveals gaps in the information gathered on patients, staff, and healthcare providers.
British Columbia has administered more than 14 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but a recent audit reveals that some of the data was not fully recorded by the Ministry of Health.
The Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia published its evaluation of how the ministry tracked COVID-19 vaccination rates on Thursday. The analysis examined vaccination rates across the entire province and focused on two high-risk populations: employees and residents of long-term care (LTC) and assisted living (AL) institutions, as well as medical professionals.
The report came to the conclusion that while the ministry could reliably track vaccination rates among the general public, they had trouble doing so among high-risk populations.
The data gathered was likely wrong since there isn’t a centralized registry for people who reside in and work at the roughly 500 long-term care and assisted living institutions in British Columbia.
Since there was no centralized database, the province had to rely on population estimates for LTC and assisted-living institutions in each health authority and general vaccination rates supplied into the PIR to track vaccination rates for these facilities.
According to the report, ministry and PHSA (Provincial Health Services Authority) officials had trouble verifying the number of residents and staff at LTC and AL facilities because there was no provincial database.
Michael Pickup, the auditor general for British Columbia, stated during a news conference that the ministry effectively shared the data with decision-makers despite the difficulties in gathering information about long-term care facility residents, staff, and health-care workers.
“Information on vaccination coverage assisted in directing the vaccine rollout and informing public health initiatives… With some exceptions to high-risk groups, our audit found that the ministry did indeed have the data it needed to track COVID vaccination rates “said he.
“In terms of [long-term care and assisted living facilities], there is no centralized registry. Data collection on those groups may therefore have been inaccurate in some cases because it had to be done manually.”
The health ministry should moving forward have access to a current registry of residents and staff at both public and private facilities, according to the auditor general’s office’s first recommendation.
High risk healthcare workers were given priority when vaccines started to be distributed in December 2021. Using data from local health departments to estimate this population, the Health Ministry was able to track those vaccination rates using the PIR.
Workers in emergency departments, intensive care units, surgical and medical units, and paramedics received priority first.
The province failed to update its demographic estimates to take into account newly eligible workers between February and October 2021, when more health-care workers became eligible to receive vaccinations.
The ministry should have access to a current registry of healthcare professionals employed by health authorities in order to meet future public health needs, according to the report’s second and final recommendation.
The ministry acknowledged both of the report’s recommendations and declared that it would begin speaking with operators of senior living facilities and health authorities this year.
