INDIANAPOLIS — Healthcare workers in central Indiana started receiving COVID-19 vaccinations Wednesday.
Wednesday morning, 975 vaccines were delivered to IU Health Methodist Hospital and were distributed to IU’s nearby vaccination clinic at the Neuroscience Center across the street.
That’s where frontline workers reported to in order to receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
The state emailed the people who would get the first round of vaccinations. It includes emergency room personnel, EMS, respiratory care workers, and nurses.
The frontline workers receiving vaccines at IU’s vaccination clinic are not all IU staff. The clinic is a site for the state so it is used to administer vaccines to workers from other hospital systems and long-term care facilities too.
Each person that came into the clinic Wednesday had an appointment and had to register. Clinic leaders scheduled plenty of time between each patient.
“It is fast. We have done a lot of timing and there was a team put together that has spent days and days trying to make the process as efficient as possible,” said Kari Kuebler, infection prevention nurse with IU Health.
Kuebler is one of several healthcare workers administering the vaccines. She herself already had COVID-19 so was recommended she not receive a vaccine for 90 days.
Each patient that came into the clinic had was screened before receiving their vaccine. On the way out they immediately scheduled their follow-up appointments before being monitored for 15 minutes.
Each of the 192 people who received the vaccine will have to come back for a second dose in 21 days. Seven days after their second dose is when immunity is expected.
“I am thrilled to get this I really am,” Peri Rogowski said.
Rogowski is a special events emergency medical technician at IU Health Methodist Hospital. Her smile was hardly contained by her face mask as she sat down to receive her shot.
“I think as healthcare providers we have an obligation to kind of lead the way,” Rogowski said.
The joy and excitement were practically potent in the room where vaccines were being administered.
A mural on the wall in the vaccination room reads "This Stops Here.” The inspirational writing put there by Heather Fidler, project coordinator of infection prevention at IU Health. A visual representation of how the workers in the room are feeling about the historic day: the vaccine is here.
“It’s the first day I came into work where I feel like we might start to win this battle,” Kuebler said.
Up until today, Kuebler had a job that was very emotionally draining.
She was responsible for calling the Indiana State Board of Health to report all of the daily COVID-19 deaths at IU Health Methodist and University hospitals. She says the numbers have gone up significantly in recent weeks. She’s had to report more deaths between the two hospitals this month, than were reported back in April.
“It’s really draining emotionally on everybody, the healthcare workers and those of us that are behind the scenes as well," Kuebler said. "There’s just a lot of sadness with this. Again it just makes today really exciting."
975 more vaccines are set for delivery Thursday to be used at this clinic. Another 8,000 vaccines were set to be delivered on Monday, but that number has been changed to 3,000.
MORE INFO | COVID-19 vaccines in Indiana: Everything you need to know
