Santiam Hospital in Stayton has begun vaccinating staff members against COVID-19 and will be the first organization in Marion County to distribute the vaccine to essential workers and first-responders.
On Dec. 22 Santiam Hospital received 3,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine and began inoculating staff members with direct patient contact the next day, said Lauren Benjamin, marketing coordinator for the hospital. Dec. 28 the hospital began administering the vaccine to employees of Life Flight and Falck Ambulance.
“We are excited to be the first in Marion County to start offering vaccinations to the essential workers and first-responders on the frontlines,” Benjamin added.
She said the Santiam Hospital elected to be an “open point of distribution” for the COVID-19 vaccine, “which means that we have elected to vaccinate those who are eligible who are not employed by Santiam Hospital.”
Organizations such as Marion County police and fire agencies have made appointments for their employees to receive the vaccine.
“We’re the only open Point of Distribution in Region 2 (Marion, Polk, Linn, Benton, and Yamhill Counties),” explained Chris Grinstead, Santiam Hospital Contracting and Reimbursement Manager.
“We took it upon ourselves to have our chief medical officer, Steve Vets, do reach out directly to all local EMS, police departments, and fire departments. We provided a link to a HIPAA compliant pre-registration page where personal and employer information is entered. We then email those people another link that allows them to choose a 5-minute testing window,” he said, adding, “All eligibility checks are done at the employer level of the first responder agency.”
The Moderna vaccine, which is administered via injection, requires two shots. The second dose is designed to be administered 28 days after the first.
“We’re currently doing about 100 doses per day at our hospital, so we anticipate current supplies lasting just over a month,” Grinstead said.
“We are monitoring the State’s system for vaccine distribution on additional dose availability, as we’ve been guaranteed that this initial allotment of 3600 was for the first dose of a two-dose series.
“As has been noted around the United States, we also have experienced that there are more doses per vaccine vial than expected,” he added.
“Each vial of Moderna vaccine is stated to have 10 doses. We have been experiencing between 11-12 doses per vial, so we could have an additional 10-20 percent vaccine availability based on what we’re seeing right now,” he noted.
“That is great news as we continue to follow the OHA vaccination sequencing, where more may be available as we get towards vaccinating the public at large. We do anticipate those being made available in the coming weeks.”
State guidelines on the vaccination program call for the highest priority to go to front-line health care workers and support staff, emergency medical service providers and residents and workers in long term and communal care settings.
Health care providers in outpatient and non-front-line capacity would follow closely behind, state officials said.
By Our Town press time Dec. 29, about 160 of the staff of 480 reportedly had received the shot. With the first round expected to continue into January.
“Santiam Hospital has a couple of methods to remind people of the second dose. We give out materials to enroll in VSAFE, which is the CDC smart phone tool that reminds people about the second dose, as well as have the person sign up for the second dose time slot at the time of first vaccination,” Grinstead explained.
“We hope this keeps everyone on schedule.”
