Southeast Health begins week of mass vaccinations

Six lanes of traffic moved patients through the hospital’s west parking garage where they received information about their vaccine, registered, and then received their Pfizer vaccination. For the most part, hospital officials felt things went smoothly.

“We have all of our appointments filled,” said Taylor Williams, vice president of Southeast Health’s medical group. “So far, there have been little glitches but we have been able to process the patients and there’s been little to no wait.”

Southeast Health in Dothan is one of eight sites in Alabama staging large-scale, drive-thru vaccination clinics this week. Similar clinics are being held in Anniston, Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Selma, and Tuscaloosa.

The hospital and other clinic sites around the state are working with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) to administer COVID-19 vaccines at the rate of 1,000 doses each day per site – 40,000 doses total.

“We know that we’ll have no-shows and those who have received their vaccinations somewhere else,” Williams said. “We have scheduled a little over 1,000 a day to accommodate for some of the no-shows, but what we’re also doing throughout the day is to take people from our wait list and schedule them later on in the day in the event that it looks like we’re not going to get our 1,000.”

Williams said Southeast Health should be able to work through its wait list over the next week or so.

Southeast Health has been doing smaller drive-thru clinics and has vaccinated as many as 400 people using only one side of the parking garage, Williams said. The mass clinic is using both sides of the parking garage.

Southeast Health’s clinic is by appointment only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day this week. Vaccine recipients must wear a mask during the process.

The COVID-19 vaccine is free of charge. But, those with appointments at Southeast Health this week will need to bring a photo ID and their insurance cards as vaccine administration charges will be billed to insurance with no out-of-pocket costs for patients.

Patients will have to wait 15 minutes after they receive their vaccine for observation. They will then schedule a return visit for their second dose if necessary.

On Monday, ADPH expanded the eligibility requirements to get the vaccine to people age 65 and older as well as to more groups of workers such as teachers, child care workers, food and agriculture workers, public transit employees and grocery store workers. Previously, only those 75 and older, healthcare workers and first responders were eligible.

Alabama had administered 473,199 doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as of Monday afternoon, according to the Alabama COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard.

On top of the mass clinic, Southeast Health has also launched a new medical record system that gives patients access to their information and will allow for electronic scheduling.

Williams said a lot of communication and planning went into this week’s clinic. More than 50 volunteers, including nursing students, are working with the clinic.

“We appreciate the community coming together for such an important cause,” he said.