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Authors Posts by Carol Ferenz

Carol Ferenz

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Department of Health has updated “Recommendations Regarding the Monovalent and Bivalent mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines.” A summary of these updates include:

  • The FDA announced on April 18, 2023, that it had rescinded the authorization for the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech and monovalent Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and that the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech and bivalent Moderna vaccines are now authorized for all doses for individuals 6 months and older.
  • The FDA authorization for the Novavax vaccine is unchanged.
  • The definition of up-to-date for COVID-19 vaccination was simplified, and now all individuals 6 years and older who have received a single dose of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of past history of receiving monovalent COVID-19 vaccine, are considered up-to-date.
  • Children 6 months through 4 years of age who are unvaccinated may receive a 2-dose series of the Moderna bivalent or a 3-dose series of the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent vaccine.
  • Children who are 5 years old and are unvaccinated may receive 2 doses of the Moderna bivalent vaccine or 1 dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent vaccine.
  • Children 6 months to 5 years of age who received one, two, or three doses of monovalent COVID-19 vaccine may receive bivalent vaccine, but the number of doses that they receive will depend upon the vaccine given and their vaccination history.
  • Individuals 65 and older and those with certain immunocompromising conditions may choose to receive an additional dose of the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech or bivalent Moderna vaccine.
  • If you have any questions, please call PA DOH at 877-PA-HEALTH (877-724-3258) or your local health department.

You can view the entire health advisory here.

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RCPA (Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association), PAR (Pennsylvania Advocates and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities), The Arc of Pennsylvania, TPA (The Provider Alliance), The Alliance of Community Service Providers, and MAX Association sent a letter to the general assembly requesting their support of our joint budget request.

As the organizations representing Pennsylvania’s Intellectual Disabilities/Autism (ID/A) service providers, we are asking them to include $430 million in the 2023/24 state general fund budget proposal to significantly improve the wage rates for the Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) who provide care to individuals with ID/A. This funding and its federal match are crucial because the ID/A system is in crisis. Nearly 60,000 Pennsylvanians with ID/A are at risk of losing or experiencing a reduction of essential services because there are not enough DSPs to care for them.

See the letter for full information.

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) wishes to create awareness of a recent announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommending consumers, health care providers, and facilities not use certain surgical N95 respirators manufactured by O&M Halyard, and to use caution with certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks manufactured by O&M Halyard. For access to additional details, please visit “FDA Safety Communication: O&M Halyard Surgical N95 Respirators, Surgical Masks, and Pediatric Face Masks.”

If this creates a hardship to a provider, please reach out to Douglas Trahey electronically.

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On April 17, the 17th Annual EIFLE Awards were presented to 13 recipients during the Annual Conference on Financial Education (ACFE). The judges presented the awards to individuals and organizations for their distinguished accomplishments in developing, implementing, and promoting successful financial literacy education worldwide [read full article].

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Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

ODP would like to remind Enterprise Incident Management (EIM) users of an upcoming change to the EIM system relating to the identification of targets. Effective Monday, May 1, 2023, when the selection in the “Target Relationship to the Individual” drop down is Another Individual or Provider Staff Member, the format of the target identifier must be as follows: the first two initials of the first name, first two initials of the last name, and last four digits of the SSN. All initials must be capitalized and there can be no spaces, dashes, or other characters between the initials and the digits. For example: AOBR1234.

The requirement to identify targets using this format has been in effect since the publication of Bulletin 00-21-02 Incident Management.pdf (pa.gov). Please see pages 15–16 of this Bulletin for information on identifying targets. Previously, the system allowed for targets to be identified with a variety of formats. This change was announced in the HCSIS Release 90.15 Newsletter on March 31, 2023. HCSIS Release Newsletters can be found under the HCSIS Communique link in the HCSIS Learning Management System (LMS). For targeted technical assistance or questions, please contact your ODP Regional Office or send inquiries via email.

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