Colorado health officials plan more on-sight inspections at vaccine providers after a Colorado Springs clinic allegedly improperly stored doses, triggering a state investigation and re-vaccination of its patients.

Earlier this week, the state announced that thousands of people who were vaccinated at Dr. Moma Health and Wellness in Colorado Springs would need their shots repeated. State officials say the clinic failed to produce documentation proving the vaccines were properly stored.

Attempts by The Gazette to contact the clinic for comment were unsuccessful Thursday and the clinic does not appear to have a voicemail service.

State recommends patients who received COVID-19 vaccine at Dr. Moma clinic start shots anew

El Paso County Public Health officials triggered the state probe after noticing “this clinic had too many appointments scheduled for a small clinic to achieve in a single day,” state officials said in an emailed statement. The state said that more than 5,300 doses had been administered at the clinic.

Inspectors from El Paso County Public Health say they found other issues at the facility, including unlabeled doses of the vaccine, a lack of post-vaccination patient observation, improperly stored vaccine vials and concerns over patient records.

Inspectors also allege some people inside the facility weren’t wearing masks or following social-distancing guidelines.

Patients face uncertainty after receiving vaccination at Colorado Springs clinic where thousands of doses were seized

The state said it suspended vaccinations at the clinic pending the outcome of an investigation and the Colorado National Guard seized more than 3,000 vaccine doses from the facility that have since been discarded.

“We’re obviously incredibly disappointed that this happened,” Scott Bookman, Colorado’s COVID-19 incident commander, said at a news conference Thursday. “And we are working on increasing our capacity, and we’ll be going out, we’ll be doing on-sight inspections to ensure, to the best of our ability, that this doesn’t happen again.”

To receive the vaccine, clinics and hospitals must attest to state authorities that they have the capacity and equipment to safely administer the vaccine.

In a statement earlier this week, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment said Dr. Moma had “met all minimum requirements for participation in the COVID-19 Vaccination Program.”

Colorado National Guard confiscates thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses from Colorado Springs medical spa

Officials said that Dr. Moma “did have cold storage capabilities” but that the provider’s documentation “confirmed improper storage.”

Sylvienash Moma, who holds a doctorate in nursing practice degree but is not a medical doctor, runs Dr. Moma Health and Wellness Clinic.

Speaking from her office Wednesday, Moma told a Gazette reporter she expected her office would release a formal statement on the matter in the coming days.

Moma’s nurse practitioner license was confirmed with the Department of Regulatory Agencies. Lee Rasizer, spokesman for the regulatory department, said the agency’s jurisdiction in this case is “confined to individual licensees upon receipt of a complaint.”

Thousands of COVID-19 vaccinations halted at Colorado Springs medical clinic as health officials investigate storage compliance

After the Dr. Moma issue, Bookman said, the state will step up its in-person inspections and monitoring of clinics to ensure they’re following the rules.

Vaccinations halted at Colorado Springs clinic

The state’s own pre-approval guidelines say that interested providers must “participate in a compliance site visit conducted by” the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

But it’s unclear if such a visit happened with Dr. Moma. Bookman was twice asked if the state had conducted that on-sight inspection before approving Dr. Moma’s application. He demurred both times, saying the state is still engaged in an “active investigation” and was still “trying to understand everything that led up to this moment.”

But he said the state was “on-boarding a huge amount of providers” to increase the state’s vaccination distribution capacity.

He stressed Colorado had administered at least one dose to more than 2.2 million Colorado residents and that the Dr. Moma situation is “an incredibly isolated incident.”

“It’s disappointing, it’s concerning, our heart goes out to those who received the vaccine at this clinic,” Bookman said. “We’ll be working with them in communication to make sure they have the opportunity to get the dosing they need to get back on track.”