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When RN Miranda Donaldson treats patients with covid-19, she wears a surgical gown and mask, gloves, goggles, and a respirator that resembles a balaclava.
Now she also has something in her body to protect her from the coronavirus.
Donaldson was among the first Excel Health employees to be vaccinated at Westmoreland Hospital on Friday. The story was done in a small hallway every five minutes or so.
Donaldson didn’t hesitate to decide if she wanted to get the shot – a barely noticeable blow she compared to a blow to the shoulder. She hopes the vaccinations will help restore normal life and that other members of the community will get it when they can.
“I just don’t know how we’re going to get back to normal,” she said. “I understand that there are reservations… and everyone has their own rights. My advice as a nurse – they should get it.
“I just think that as a country we have to do it,” she said.
Excela Health kicked off a large-scale plan to vaccinate its employees on Friday morning after receiving its first shipment of Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer a day earlier. Each of its three hospitals – Westmoreland in Greensburg, Frick in Mt. Pleasant and Latrobe – received 975 doses.
Pennsylvania shipped its 97,500 initial doses to health systems this week and expects to receive more. The vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was the first to be cleared for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, sparking the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. A second vaccine manufactured by Moderna gained FDA approval on Friday.
In Westmoreland County, 15,793 cases of the virus were confirmed as of Friday and nearly 70,000 have tested negative, state data showed. The balance sheet is 337 people, including 133 to date in December. There were 175 covid patients hospitalized in the county on Friday, the most since the pandemic began in March.
Excela Health’s immunization program coordinator Denise Addis, vice president of cardiovascular services programs, said about 500 employees across the system are due to be immunized on Friday. Others will receive the vaccine in the coming days. Some vials contain additional doses of the vaccine, and the FDA has notified healthcare providers that they can use it. Excela Health is taking that advice, Addis said.
Employees who want the vaccine to be registered in advance. It was a quick process after they arrived for their appointment – filling out the papers took longer than the actual photo. Even though it seemed routine, the implications are huge.
“It’s kind of like a big breath of fresh air,” Addis said. “It will help the employees, it will help their families, it will help the community as a whole.”
Staff in the emergency department at Westmoreland Hospital have recently been upbeat and hopeful about the prospect, said Deputy Director Dr. Heather Walker. She encouraged community members to get it when they can. Walker received the vaccine on Friday.
“Although this specific vaccine is new, the process of developing this specific vaccine is not,” she said.
Emergency department clinical director John Giesey didn’t flinch when pharmacist Samar Khalil administered the vaccine.
“I didn’t hesitate,” he says. “I believe in science. I think this is the responsible thing to do.
Giesey agreed that colleagues in his department, who recently handled an attack in coronavirus patients, are feeling optimistic. Staffing has been a concern at Excela Health and elsewhere as employees contract the virus and are sick or quarantined as the number of cases in Westmoreland County has been rising for weeks.
“You feel hope,” he says.
The vaccinated received a card with their name, when they had their injection and the brand of the vaccine. A second appointment will be made in a few weeks for the last shot necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the vaccine. Dr Marti Haykin, neuro-hospitalist who works at Westmoreland and Latrobe hospitals, was happy to be among the first to be vaccinated.
“We are all hoping that we can all get vaccinated so that we can start to turn a corner here,” she said. “We were waiting for this. I had no hesitation.
But she and Walker are asking community members to think twice before reuniting with family members for Christmas, echoing local, state and federal health officials who all recommend keeping the celebrations within. ‘a household. Haykin said she recently had two patients who spent Thanksgiving with their families.
She will be celebrating practically next week.
“You can make it work,” she said.
Renatta Signorini is a writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Renatta at 724-837-5374, [email protected] or via Twitter .
Categories:
Coronavirus | Local | Top stories | Westmoreland
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