MU Health receives first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, Boone Hospital’s coming Wednesday
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
MU Health received its first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday evening.
The shipment of nearly 3,000 doses arrived at University Hospital around 6:45 p.m.
MU Health Care executive director of pharmacy and laboratory services Brad Myers said the vaccine will start to be administered Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. and will likely be given to around 900 front line workers.
"I can't tell you how excited we are," Myers said. "We had employees and even myself get teary-eyed thinking about 10 months of our lives being changed, and that we have a solution we can provide first to our employees then to the community."
He said MU Health is hoping to get another shipment of the vaccine on Dec. 20, and then another on Dec. 27.
The system hopes to vaccinate all front line workers by the end of December.
The Chief Medical Officer for Boone Hospital Dr. Robin Blount said its first shipment of the vaccine will arrive Wednesday and will start being administered on Thursday
Boone will start with patient-facing employees first, starting with the older doctors they have on staff who may be in a higher risk group. Boone hospital employs roughly 2,500 people.
The administration of the vaccine will start on Thursday and will go for 7 days. In the timeframe, Blount hopes nearly 1,000 employees are vaccinated.
The vaccine could come with some side effects that could put people out for a day. Blount said they are encouraging their workers to schedule their shot a day where they may be off the next day to avoid staffing issues.
"Every vaccine gives people a sore arm, makes them achy, might feel a little crummy for a day or two," Blount said. "We are just reminding people that if all possible to schedule it in that way."
Staffing issues with employees either out sick or quarantine continues to impact hospital capacity and the amount of smaller non-emergent procedures that can be done. Blount said she hopes to see this get better in the next coming weeks with the arrival of the vaccine.
"We hope the immediate result of this, the short term result, is that we will have a healthier staff and be able to provide more health care."
