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An Arizona hospital on Friday launched a trial simulating how it will distribute COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers once the Food and Drug Administration approves a candidate.
HonorHealth, a local nonprofit community health system, worked with the community to create a plan so they could be ready to immunize thousands of frontline healthcare workers as quickly as possible.
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With help from officials in the City of Scottsdale, Maricopa County and the Mayo Clinic, the hospital was able to refine its process on Friday morning.
“When the clearance arrives, we’ll be ready”, HonorHealth tweeted.
About 85 volunteers wearing gloves and face masks supervised five lanes of traffic that were safely distributed over a large parking lot in the Phoenix area.
About 30 to 40 of these volunteers simulated the process of driving patients to a tent in each lane to be vaccinated. First, the cars were greeted by a volunteer before being directed to one of the five lanes. From there, the volunteers mimicked the action of giving the vaccine in order to count how long each patient will take.
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Cars were then driven to an observation area where patients would wait about 15 minutes to observe possible side effects after the vaccine was administered before exiting the parking lot.
HonorHealth vice president and chief medical officer Dr John Pope told FOX Business on Friday that the hospital has been planning an event like this since early October. Now armed with six refrigerators and a sophisticated drive-thru process, he says they’re ready for when a vaccine is assigned to the state, which he may be planning by mid- December.
The Food and Drug Administration will consider authorizing emergency use of two vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna later this month. Current estimates predict that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of this year. Each product also requires two doses, which means that the injections will be rationed in the early stages.
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On Tuesday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said healthcare workers and nursing home residents should be on the front line to get vaccinated when the first vaccines become available, although final guidance is left. to state authorities.
“These are really the people who are on the front lines,” Pope said. “And that will give them hope as they take care of the patients.”
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When the time comes, authorities hope to be able to immunize more than 130 health workers per hour. Overall, they hope to receive around 15,000 doses, however, while it is far too early to say how many doses they will be allocated, the hospital has developed algorithms that can increase or decrease depending on the amount received.
Either way, the Pope says they are convinced that they “are going to be ready”.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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