Health Dept Making Changes After Philly Fighting COVID Scandal

Philadelphia PA

08 March, 2021

4:09 PM

Description

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Health Department announced changes to its policies after an Inspector General report came out regarding the Philly Fighting COVID situation in the city. The report identified "structural and process weaknesses" that led to the partnership between the health department and Philly Fighting COVID and also laid out recommendations to address issues that led to the partnership. In the report, Inspector General Alex F. DeSantis said the city presented the group as an "instrument of the city;" that the health department hadn't "robustly evaluated" the group and this had "no clear understanding" of the group; and that the health department had not "outlined the respective responsibilities of the different parties involved." DeSantis recommended the city and health department train employees on the contracting process and "continue to build transparency with respect to the allocation between and among different City-wide providers." According to Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, the department has taken action on those recommendations. "All employees involved in contracting for services related to the COVID-19 response will be trained in emergency contracting procedures of the City as well as other mechanisms to provide services on an emergency basis," Farley said. "PDPH has established a report of COVID-19 doses allocated to different providers and doses administered by those providers each week." Read the city and health department's full response to the report here.