As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to roll out across the country, fewer patients are being hospitalized from the disease. Those who are hospitalized are often unvaccinated.

Leora Horwitz, MD, an internist at NYU Langone, has observed that many of the patients with COVID-19 she takes care of in the wards are homebound, older patients who were unable to go out and get the vaccine themselves.

“For many of the older people, the people with chronic diseases, it’s been very difficult for them to get out and get the vaccine,” she says. Since many such patients receive home visits from healthcare providers, she wonders why the vaccine wasn’t brought to them. “They’re already connected to a healthcare organization that’s coming to their home on a regular basis. It seems like that should be a strategy we should be using,” says Dr. Horwitz.

Furthermore, Dr. Horwitz says, “The city’s program for reaching these people appears to be working, but not as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Read more from Kaiser Health News.