State boots Pueblo clinic from COVID, pediatric vaccine programs

Colorado health authorities have barred a Pueblo primary care clinic from distributing the COVID-19 vaccine and blocked it from participating in a federal pediatric vaccination program, a decision prompted by what the clinic’s owner said was an “unethical employee.”

Thirteen people treated by Family Care Specialists will have to be revaccinated with a number of different doses for different diseases, the state Department of Public Health and Environment said in a Wednesday news release. Among other violations, the state said the clinic didn’t monitor and report temperature data, didn’t properly store and monitor COVID-19 vaccines, or properly dispose of expired COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The state wrote that these issues were found during an on-site clinic visit. Because of those issues, the clinic can’t provide COVID-19 vaccines any longer. It can also no longer participate in the Vaccines for Children program, which provides pediatric vaccines to kids who may not otherwise have access to them.

The 13 people who need revaccination received 20 doses among them, including against COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A and B, polio and other diseases.

Nancy Moya, the clinic’s founder and physician, told The Denver Gazette that she was unaware of the state’s findings, or that 13 people would need to be revaccinated, until a reporter called her. She said the findings appeared to stem from multiple incidents.

She said the clinic had a visit from the Vaccine for Children program, which noted several discrepancies. Moya said she had an employee tasked with addressing those discrepancies and clearing them with the state. That employee, Moya said, had repeatedly insisted she was faxing the needed information, despite the state saying otherwise.

Moya said she eventually became suspicious and planned to confront her employee, who then stopped showing up to work. Moya said she wrote the state a letter explaining what had happened and requesting time to get up to speed. She said she never received a reply, until a courier arrived and requested all of the clinic’s COVID-19 doses.

She said the clinic only had expired Moderna, which makes one of the twodose COVID-19 vaccines, when the courier showed up. She stressed that they weren’t administering those doses to any patients. She said she had received Pfizer, the other two-dose vaccine manufacturer, previously but that, because her freezer wasn’t capable of properly storing it, Pueblo County authorities said they would store the doses and give her clinic a short-term supply.

Moya said the missing documentation is a result of that agreement with the county. A spokeswoman for Pueblo County said in an email that the county was in compliance with all state regulations and recommendations.

Moya, who said she’s been in practice for more than 20 years, said the suspension would harm area kids who would have one less place to be inoculated.