As reported Dec. 20 (“County vaccine clinic to shut Dec. 29 after administering 100,000 pictures”), the ultimate tally of 100,000 vaccinations administered on-site, at school and at cell clinics wouldn’t have occurred with out the group’s numerous hours of effort and assist for the COVID vaccination middle in Sanford.
Mary Wealthy of Waterboro is vaccinated by Kennebunk Hearth & Rescue paramedic David Garriepy on opening day of the York County vaccine clinic, in a former Marshall’s division retailer in Sanford, on March 2, 2021. Gregory Rec/Employees Photographer, File
I’m writing with the deepest of appreciation on behalf of the York County Emergency Administration Company for the handfuls of cops, firefighters, EMS suppliers, academics, municipal employees, authorities officers and medical, nursing and pharmacy college students from the College of New England in addition to group volunteers who provided their time, experience and assist over the previous three years.
There’s a vital a part of this clinic’s story we will’t overlook. We arrived there accidentally.
The impetus for this clinic was the popularity by Sanford’s city supervisor that each Southern Maine Well being Care and the state Heart for Illness Management and Prevention have been contemplating opening high-throughput vaccination clinics in the identical purchasing middle. Working collectively to maximise particular person skills and assets to “put pictures in arms” resulted in leaders from a number of organizations that had by no means labored collectively to create a public well being initiative with minimal pressure on the native well being care system.
Acknowledging that over 50% of those vaccinations have been administered after the connection with MaineHealth dissolved is a praise to each organizations, because the preliminary assist led to the York County Emergency Medical Company having the ability to get up the operation independently and proving itself as a dependable entity able to facilitating conversations between well being care entities in a coordinated and constant method.
On the opening, I spoke of confidence within the vaccine’s efficacy in decreasing the chance of hospitalization and demise and an appreciation for the partnership with the CDC, SMHC and the native municipalities, all punctuated by a line borrowed from Bruce Springsteen – an assurance there could be “no retreat and no give up” from what we wanted to perform.
In the present day, the outcomes are clear. COVID vaccinations prevented greater than 18.5 million hospitalizations and three.2 million deaths in america. What I’ve been reflecting on isn’t that Maine had the third-highest vaccination price within the nation – it’s the story of our contribution, particularly the place these 100,000 vaccinations didn’t occur. Specifically, that these pictures weren’t given in a physician’s workplace or pharmacy, permitting an already-strained well being care system to dump this process to an environment friendly and dependable useful resource throughout the group. Different rural communities weren’t afforded that aid.
What was achieved on the Marshall’s website was rewarding to me as an emergency division doctor as a result of we got a chance to go upstream of an issue with an efficient intervention, as a substitute of studying find out how to settle for the results we have now much less energy to alter. I do know that those that served constantly discovered the constructive suggestions from grandparents, mother and father and youngsters served by the clinic to be compelling and galvanizing. The phrases of appreciation earned whereas being of service to a different particular person are valuable – I encourage any of us to carry on to them dearly.
About 18 months into this, I noticed one of the best reply to the query, “When will COVID be over?” additionally fits the query, “When will Tom Brady retire?” Time retains proving that the one right reply in each cases is: “We’ll see.” ESPN’s analysts can speculate all they need; nonetheless, the one factor that issues at this time is whether or not we are going to make an identical dedication to low season coaching and preparation because the “GOAT” to depart as a lot of the ultimate reply in our management as humanly attainable.
What overwhelms me essentially the most about what was achieved is an appreciation for the shared values that maintain a group collectively in a disaster – service to others, gratitude and empathy.
Due to an alignment of values, a gaggle got here collectively, no matter levels, titles, badges or prior work expertise to create a useful useful resource for the group. The ultimate product exceeded what any single entity may have achieved independently. Thanks to the handfuls of group companions whose particular person efforts helped fulfill the clinic’s mission assertion: “We’re part of the best public well being mobilization of our technology.”
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