AHA Expresses Support for the Student Assisted Vaccination Effort Act (S. 2114)

The Honorable Mark Kelly                                The Honorable Susan Collins
United States Senate                                        United States Senate
516 Hart Senate Office Building                        413 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510                                     Washington, DC 20510                                

Dear Senators Kelly and Collins:

On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians,
2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups, the American Hospital Association (AHA) writes to express support for your legislation, S. 2114, the Student Assisted Vaccination Effort (SAVE) Act.

This year, a key barrier to rapid vaccine dissemination has been the availability of a sufficient workforce trained to administer them. The AHA supports allowing additional provider groups to deliver vaccines—as long as they are appropriately trained, and as necessary, have appropriate supervision when administering the vaccine. Vaccine providers must be able to identify any recipients who are at risk for anaphylaxis, and necessary personnel should be onsite to administer appropriate treatment if a vaccine recipient has an antiphylactic reaction.

Your legislation would expand the types of providers covered by the PREP Act and offer them appropriate legal protections for the deployment of countermeasures during public health emergencies. Hospitals and health systems stand ready to offer assistance to schools with the administration of vaccines under this approach.

The AHA welcomes the opportunity to collaborate on the advancement of the SAVE Act, and we look forward to serving as a resource to you and your staff on this legislation and other health workforce matters.

Sincerely,

/s/

Stacey Hughes
Executive Vice President