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PCH opens county’s second vaccine site at Fairgrounds
The excitement was palpable at the Putnam County Fairgrounds Community Building Tuesday morning.
Though Putnam County Hospital was not set to issue its first doses of COVID-19 vaccine until 9 a.m., clients were waiting outside in their cars, waiting to get the much-anticipated vaccine before 8 a.m.
While clients are asked not to arrive more than 10 minutes before their scheduled appointment, the staff and volunteers had trouble blaming them on this morning.
“There is a lot of excitement,” PCH Director of Marketing and Community Relations Brooke Trissel said. “It’s an exciting time to be in health care.”
PCH Director of Quality Wendi O’Hair was running on adrenaline as of mid-morning Tuesday.
“This morning, I was up at midnight, 2 and 4,” O’Hair said. Finally, she decided to get up at 6 a.m.
O’Hair’s sleepless night is understandable, as she helmed the effort to get the vaccine clinic up and going at the Fairgrounds, including acquiring a special freezer to keep the Pfizer vaccine at the low temperature it needs.
The event marks an increase in the capacity to vaccinate residents of Putnam County and surrounding communities, with the Fairgrounds site joining the Putnam County Health Department effort already under way.
As of Sunday, 1,979 Putnam County residents had received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 378 were fully vaccinated.
The hope is those numbers will be increasing at a greater rate with the PCH clinic now open each Tuesday through Thursday.
“We’re vaccinating over 100 people on Day One,” Trissel said.
The clinic will also be open into the evening on Wednesdays to provide more times to those who work during the day.
The process of signing up for the vaccine remains the same, even with a new site open. Those eligible — a list that currently includes health care workers, first responders and people 65 years and older — should go to https://vaccine.coronavirus.in.gov/ or call 211.
Once an eligible resident enters his or her ZIP code, a list of nearby available appointments will be generated from which to choose.
Trissel said one worry is people scheduling their appointments at one site, but getting confused and showing up at the other. However, she said the staffs are communicating with one another, so if a patient goes to the wrong site, they will be sent to the other with a call ahead so no one believes there’s been a no-show.
Once an appointment is scheduled, patients are encouraged to also pre-register, though registration can be done in person at the Community Building.
The community building provides a socially-distanced space in which to provide the vaccine, with plenty of room for registration, waiting, vaccination and registering for a second dose.
With the Pfizer vaccine, that will mean a three-week turnaround.
The final step in the process is the required 15-minute wait time to monitor for an adverse reaction.
There certainly seemed to be no such problems for Linda Ratcliff of Mecca, the first person to receive the vaccine Tuesday morning, who was spending her time laughing and making a new friend in Annette Rose of Greencastle, the second person vaccinated.
“I didn’t feel a thing,” Ratcliff said. “They’re very nice. They explain everything to you. I’d tell anybody to come and have it done.”
In the course of their conversation, Ratcliff learned that Rose had been a casino manager in Las Vegas before moving to Greencastle.
“Now I know we need to be friends because I love Las Vegas,” Ratcliff said.
For her part, Rose also had high praise for the PCH team.
“Everybody was very professional,” Rose said.”The shot was fantastic. Anybody who’s afraid of needles shouldn’t think twice.”
It’s more than just the PCH staff that’s making the clinic possible, though. There’s also a team of community volunteers helping with various aspects of the process, as well as the Putnam County CERT team, present to help with crowd control and monitoring those who’ve already received their dose.
It’s a role CERT members have also been filling at the Health Department for nearly a month.
Trissel also expressed her appreciation to the Fair Board for the use of the building three days a week for the next two months, as well as to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office for the jail trustees who helped set up the site.
Thanks also goes out to the Indiana State Highway Department for clearing the parking lot of snow Tuesday morning.