BOISE, Idaho — On Saturday, the Family Medicine Health Center in Boise vaccinated over six hundred Idahoans. Between the Nampa and Boise clinics, a total of 852 doses were administered.
All patients were vaccinated in just eight hours and had to schedule an appointment in advance. The health center focused on vaccinated priority groups, those ages 65 and older. No doses went to waste.
According to Maria Gulan, the chief nursing officer at the facility, the staff was able to pull of the hundreds of vaccinations because they spent long hours preparing well in advance.
“Logistics were the challenge today,” she said. “Several of us stayed late last night and we set up those teams making sure they had all the equipment they needed.”
Gulan said not only did the staff divide and conquer, but patients too were split up into teams and escorted into rooms where they could maintain their social distance while getting vaccinated.
“Why it worked is just the team, everything from the schedulers to nurses, we have residents, physicians helping give vaccine today and just everyone working together in sync,” she said.
There were only a few no shows and the facility was able to vaccinate nine more people than predicted thanks to leftover doses.
“Amazing, everyone is so appreciative I’ve heard people say it feels like a weight lifted off their shoulders it’s just amazing,” Gulan said. "We have had a really good response rate with the employees at our clinic, so it makes it easier to tell that story to our patients, you know, we believe in it I wouldn't be asking you to get a vaccine, if I didn't have my vaccine."
Gulan wants her patients to know that no one is fully protected from the virus until two weeks after the second dose. Even so, she said people will need to continue to mask up and keep their distance.
Family Medicine Health Center will have an additional round of first dose vaccinations on Feb. 20. The hundreds who were vaccinated on Saturday will need to return on March 6 for their second dose.