Sutter Issues Warning About Vaccinations

Thousands of children and adults vaccinated over a six-month span for ailments ranging from N1H1 flu to polio at Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation facilities in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and Lake counties have been warned their injections may need to be given again.

The large Northern California health provider sent out warning letters this week to more than 3,000 patients who received vaccines at those facilities between January-June 2010.

The culprit, Sutter said, was the improper refrigeration of the vaccinations.

An inspection last month of refrigeration logs at one medical office found variations in temperature that fell outside the range for vaccines recommended to maintain their efficacy and potency, Sutter said.

Since the initial test, an investigation of temperature logs found that 14 of 62 Sutter-affiliated “Care Centers” recorded such temperature variations, according to Dr. Anabel Anderson Imbert, chief medical officer of Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation.

“I don’t know why they fell outside the range,” Imbert said.

The health providers will conduct a formal audit to determine what went wrong and then take measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The vaccines that may have been affected include: Rotavirus vaccine; Pneumovax vaccine; hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine; Act Hib Vaccine; Menactra/Meningococcal;Dtap; Adacel/Tdap; Decavax/TD; Pentacel; Polio Vaccine; Gardasil Vaccine; Afluria; H1N1; Pediarix; Twinrix; Kinrix and MMR.

The clinics covered by the warning are:

San Francisco 595 Buckingham Way 1375 Sutter Cesar Chavez Primary Care

Marin Novato Primary Care

Lake County 5150 Hill Rd, Kelseyville

Sonoma 5300 Snyder Lane Family Practice

Farmer’s Lane Pediatrics

Landmark Family Practice Suite 202

Landmark Obstetrics Suite 165

Landmark Pediatrics Suite 120

Rohnert Park Pediatrics

Sebastopol Family Practice 652 Petaluma

Summerfield Family Practice