Hospital administrators in Greater Cincinnati do not know how many staff and volunteers are already vaccinated against COVID-19, officials said Tuesday, just days after announcing they would require them to get the shot this fall.

“We simply don’t know,” said Mercy Health's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stephen Feagins. “Many vaccines were given certainly by us to employees, but there are many sites of vaccination: pharmacies, mass vaccinations sites.”

Last week, all six hospital systems from our area said they will require staff and volunteers to get the vaccine.

University of Cincinnati Medical Center created the pilot program to vaccinate workers. Spokesperson Amanda Nageleisen said the team built the program quickly to slow the virus. Because they were treating staff as patients, those records are now private.

Nageleisen says UC Medical Center knows how many doses it administered when the vaccine was available to only healthcare workers. She says that data indicated a high number of staff vaccinated. However, she says when the vaccine became available to the general public, administrators were unable to decipher which patients were healthcare workers and which were part of the general public.

Doctors say they’ll have data when mandates kick in this fall and employees are required to report their status.

“There are a lot, a lot of individuals who would actually prefer to work in an environment where they know everyone is vaccinated,” said Dr. Feagins.

Health and Human Services requested that hospitals report the number weekly starting Jan. 13. WCPO was still waiting for Greater Cincinnati data as of late Tuesday afternoon.

WCPO asked Mercy Health, Tri-Health, Christ Hospital, University of Cincinnati, and UC Children’s if they have followed guidance to report it but did not immediately hear back.

“Asking people for vaccine cards is going to take time,” said Dominic Mendiola.

Mendiola is a labor representative for the Ohio Nurses Association. The union represents 1,700 nurses at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The local chapter there is called the Registered Nurses Association of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

“We’re surveying our members to try to see voluntarily who wants to disclose to us who is vaccinated,” said Mendiola. So far, 70 percent of survey respondents are vaccinated, he said.

Advocates say there's a huge need for expanded access to medication as the number of victims affected by opioid use disorder continues to rise.

Looking at pictures of Adam Black in a bodybuilding competition, you'd never know that he's 7 years in recovery from opioid addiction.

“I hit a spiritual bottom and everything around me was falling apart. I couldn’t keep anything together in my life, the drugs become everything to you,” said Black.

When those drugs truly become everything to you, Black says, you "lose yourself."

He describes running out of money and says, "I couldn’t feed my addiction anymore, so I started breaking into unlocked cars, stealing change, trying to feed my addiction and, being an addict, I couldn’t do anything right, couldn’t even be a criminal right.”

He went to prison for three years, and then he ended up in the hospital.

“(I) Got heart surgery. I was like 150 pounds at the time, that was one of my rock bottoms, right there, that changed my life, that I can’t keep going this way.”

It was then that he was able to change. It wasn't overnight, but eventually he found Groups Recover Together, and received medication-assisted treatment.

He says, “I don’t have cravings anymore. I’m able to maintain a job, a family, everything I was working so hard to get, I’m able to have that now, and I owe it all to Groups.”

Dr. Gus Crothers is an addiction medicine specialist. He treats people with substance abuse disorders.

“The treatment is a combination of medication, counseling, and lifestyle changes. And those are the same core treatments we use for managing any chronic disease," said Crothers.

He says one of the treatments has tight, and some say, outdated restrictions. It's known as the "X-Waiver" and it requires doctors to get extra training before they can prescribe buprenorphine.

It's a legal hurdle that dates back to the early 2000s.

“When we have such an access gap to medications, people are thinking we should get rid of the data waiver and get rid of those restrictions that limit access to treatment,” Crothers said.

We asked the Department of Health and Human Services about the waiver, which has become confusing for some.

The Trump administration removed the X-Waiver shortly before President Joe Biden's inauguration. Recently, the current administration reversed that decision. A spokesperson for HHS says the previous announcement was made prematurely, but they are committed to "examine ways to increase access to buprenorphine."

Which means, doctors still need extra training to prescribe the treatment, which people like Black say, is life-changing and lifesaving.

“I still take the medication. I’m weaning down as we speak. I sponsor a couple of other guys, I check in with 3 or 4 other people at our group. You can’t do this alone, you need to be there for the people who are going through this," Black said.

You can't go it alone, and Black says, you can get help.