Hudson Physician's CEO Matt Brandt discusses the latest vaccine distribution updates, differences between vaccines, and other common questions regarding COVID-19.

1. We will be calling you so no need to call us.  We will be reaching out to patients to schedule their vaccine appointment.  This helps us keep the phone lines free for patients in need of other healthcare services.
2. Vaccines are by appointment only,  at this time we cannot accommodate walk-ins we have a tight supply and timeline to manage for giving second shots.

Over March, our supply of vaccine doses received from the State of Wisconsin has steadily increased each week. We just received word that we will receive 1,000 doses of vaccine next week, which is the highest weekly amount we have received so far. So the good news is with supply increasing, we are able to open up who we can vaccinate.

This week, we have started to call our patients over the age of 50 who also have one or more chronic conditions to schedule a vaccine appointment. We are also working with some local employers to coordinate vaccines for their essential workers. If you work for one of these companies, you will be given scheduling instructions from your HR department.

Over the past few weeks, we have reached out to all of our patients over 65 to offer the vaccine and are starting to work back through the list. We want to make sure everybody over 65 has been offered the vaccine. Many have received the vaccine elsewhere, and that is not a problem. Just let us know, and we will record in it your chart. If you are over 65, an educator or healthcare worker, and either live in the Hudson area or a patient of Hudson Physicians, please give us a call at 715-531-6800, and we will prioritize to get you scheduled for a vaccine.

Patients 50-65 who have one or more chronic conditions will contact you over the next few weeks to get you scheduled.

With the supply continuing to increase, we expect by April 12th that we will be scheduling all patients with chronic conditions regardless of age and open to all patients by the end of April.

A special thanks to all of our patients! Often the State of Wisconsin makes various populations eligible to receive the vaccine (and these often differ from Minnesota and Federal CDC guidance). Still, the actual vaccine supply is not available yet, creating confusion and misinformation. Despite that, we have found all of our patients to be understanding and easy to work with as we deal with these issues allowing us to focus on getting the supply of vaccine we do have into patient's arms. Your patience and understanding are appreciated!

Vaccine – The Wisconsin Department of Health notified us today they are pausing all Johnson & Johnson vaccine distribution and administration. Fortunately, Hudson Physicians has not received any Johnson & Johnson vaccine to date as we have only received Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Unfortunately, without the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being available, the State has informed us to expect our vaccine supplies to be reduced over the coming weeks.

At this point we are scheduling patients over the age of 16 with one or more chronic conditions, patients over the age of 65 regardless of medical conditions and essential workers. With the reduction in supply we expect it to be a few more weeks before we can open it up to all patients.

We have reached out to all our patients over 65 and the good news is over 90% of them have been vaccinated which is great. If you are over 65, an educator or healthcare worker and either live in the Hudson area or a patient of Hudson Physicians and have not been vaccinated but would like to, please give us a call at 715-531-6800 and we will prioritize to get you scheduled for a vaccine.

Patients over the age of 16 who have one or more chronic conditions: we will be contacting you over the next few weeks to get you scheduled.

Testing – Hudson Physicians has rapid molecular PCR COVID-19 testing available. Molecular PCR testing is the gold standard for accuracy and in the early days of the pandemic it often took days to get results; now we have an inhouse machine that processes the tests in 45 minutes and we can get results back the same day. Hudson Physicians Urgent Care is providing the COVID-19 testing and is open 7:30am-9pm Monday – Friday, 8am to 9pm Saturday, and 9am to 9pm Sunday.

We are now able to schedule any patient or Hudson area resident over the age of 16 who would like a COVID Vaccine.

Hudson Physicians has mainly been receiving the Pfizer vaccine and our supplies for the next few weeks will all be Pfizer.

90% of our patients over the age of 65 have received the vaccine and just over 75% of our patients from 50-65 have received the vaccine. This is excellent news as this group of patients is most at risk and the high vaccination rates will help protect them. Now we are calling all of our younger patients with chronic diseases like asthma or diabetes to make sure they have had a chance to get the vaccine. At the same time we will open up vaccine appointments to any person over the age of 16 who would like to receive a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

If you are over 16 years old and would like a vaccine call us at 715-531-6800.

Testing – Hudson Physicians has rapid molecular PCR COVID-19 testing available. Molecular PCR testing is the gold standard for accuracy and in the early days of the pandemic often took days to get results, now we have an in-house machine that processes the tests in 45 minutes and we can get results back the same day.

Hudson Physicians Urgent Care is providing the COVID-19 testing and is open 7:30am-9pm Monday – Friday, 8am to 9pm Saturday, and 9am to 9pm Sunday.

January 18, 2021