Zi: Over 90 percent of practices also vaccinate outside of regular office hours

21.12.2021 12:51

According to a recent survey of practicing doctors, almost 92 percent of general practitioners and specialist practices in Germany offer additional vaccination offers for their patients in addition to regular consultation hours. Almost 93 percent of the practices surveyed have already made vaccination appointments for January 2022. The fact that the majority of participants have already planned approximately the same number or even more appointments for January 2022 than for December 2021 speaks for the practices' optimistic perspective when it comes to vaccine deliveries.

So far, 18 percent of the Moderna corona vaccine delivered to practices in the fourth quarter of 2021 has not yet been vaccinated. The practices surveyed expect that only a good 5 percent of the vaccine received in the fourth quarter will have to be discarded by the end of the year. However, the inevitable rejection rate for the Moderna vaccine is considered to be higher to significantly higher compared to other vaccines. This is mainly due to the large vials, which each contain 20 booster doses.

Around 71 percent of those surveyed see Moderna's larger vials as a greater burden on the practice organization compared to other COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, the need for medical information before Moderna vaccinations is considered to be significantly higher than before administering the Biontech vaccine. Likewise, the majority of those surveyed perceive a lower willingness to be vaccinated among patients in primary care and specialist care as a result of the ongoing quota of the Biontech vaccine, which is particularly popular in Germany. Therefore, a majority of contract doctors report higher burdens due to the quota.

These are the central results of a quick survey on the current status of the corona vaccination campaign in doctors' practices, which the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance (Zi) has recently published. Resident doctors were surveyed about the current COVID-19 vaccine situation and further appointment scheduling until January 2022. The survey also contained questions about the burden on the practice organization due to the predominant supply of the Moderna vaccine and about the willingness of patients to be vaccinated . After cleaning the data, almost 3,000 people took part in the online survey, which ran from December 16 to 20, 2021.

“Due to the limited availability of the active ingredient Comirnaty from Biontech and the switch to Spikevax from Moderna, the practice teams were suddenly confronted with completely new challenges. Our quick survey shows that practices now have to cope with a significant additional effort in organization and education. Nevertheless, more than half of all patients in the practices have recently been vaccinated with Spikevax. And the practices continue to rush from vaccination record to vaccination record. “In doing so, you are reliably securing the federal government’s 30 million booster vaccination promise every day,” said Zi CEO Dr. Dominik von Stillfried.

It speaks for the practices that the rejection is kept to a minimum and, despite uncertain deliveries, vaccinations are not only being carried out at the highest level since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, but appointments are also being offered and arranged unabated into January, continued von Stillfried: “Until the end of the year The 30 million target can be achieved even with a slightly reduced vaccination output due to the holidays. In order to maintain the pace of protection against the impending Omicron wave, it is essential that the logistics of vaccine distribution run smoothly and that medical practices receive exactly the quantities of vaccine ordered in order to be able to keep all vaccination appointments offered.