CDPHE refuses to say if inspection policy was followed for clinic accused of wasting 7,000+ doses
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- State health officials refuse to say if they followed their own vaccine provider inspection policy before sending vaccines to the Colorado Springs clinic accused of wasting more than 7,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
State health officials are urging thousands of Coloradans to get revaccinated after getting doses at Dr. Moma's Health & Wellness Center in Colorado Springs.
The revaccination effort comes after the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) investigated Dr. Moma Health and Wellness Clinic after the Joint Vaccine Task Force was alerted of irregularities in vaccine storage and handling.
A total of 3,933 vaccines were administered at the location before the clinic was shut down last Friday. CDPHE confirms an additional 3,150 confiscated doses were also thrown out. Those figures show that more than 7,000 doses from Dr. Moma's were either invalid or wasted.
When asked by 13 Investigates, the owner of Dr. Moma's Health & Wellness Center said state health officials violated their own policy and never came to her facility before sending thousands of vaccines.
Our team has repeatedly asked CDPHE about this but all officials would tell us during a press conference Thursday morning is that the situation is still under investigation and that they planned to ramp up state vaccine provider compliance check efforts going forward.
After our repeated questions about the inspection process for Dr. Moma's clinic, CDPHE changed its compliance check requirement to approve vaccine providers.
The policy now says:
"CDPHE will conduct compliance site visits, informal observations, or investigations, in conjunction
with local public health agencies, as necessary."
When 13 Investigates asked why state health officials changed their policy, they said they "realized the language was not clear".
"From the beginning, our plan was to regularly conduct compliance site visits, informal observations, or investigations, in conjunction with local public health agencies, as necessary. With over 1300 approved providers, rarely does a compliance visit happen prior to enrollment. We rely on the information providers submit in the formal enrollment process including certifying by signature that they understand and will comply with the requirements laid out in the application," a CDPHE spokesperson said.
