OAHHS Hospital Voice Spring/Summer 2021

27 Spring/Summer 2021 someone’s health record is defi- nitely one of the challenges. How do you manage declining demand now that there is plenty of supply? Moving forward, what is the strategy? I think first and foremost it’s cre- ating more and more access spots. One assuring that every primary care physician or doctor’s office, hospital mode, urgent care, some dental offices have access and have vaccine there, basically the health care industry and pharma- cies all have vaccine. I think we’re pretty close to that spot. But that’s not enough. So, it’s working on events, continuing them, mov- ing to a campaign ground game, which is boots on the ground, knocking on doors, figuring out where there is lower uptake, and just creating opportunities where people can receive a vaccine. That’s hard, slow work. We’re not going to get back to where we hit 50,000 doses a day a couple of times. That’s not going to happen again. It may when we need a booster, or if we need a booster, but for now keeping a continued push on getting people vaccinated, we still have a long way to go in the state, eventually children under 12 will be eligible, so we’re definitely done, we’ve come a long way, and I think hope- fully we have a different kind of summer to look forward to with cases that are really going down in Oregon and in the country. So, hopefully more and more peo- ple will get vaccinated so we won’t have a resurgence in the fall or a resurgence with the new variant. But only time will tell. Thanks Dave, we appreciate it. You have a really hard job, and people are grateful for the incredible amount of effort you’ve put into it. Thanks Dave, and thanks to the hospitals and health systems who have been such important part- ners in this vaccine effort. The roles that hospitals played in stepping up in vaccinating beyond just their employees in their local communities, to say, “You know what, the state needs us now, and we are going to take a risk and set up these things that we don’t know how we’re going to get paid for, we don’t know exactly how they’re going to happen,” but they have been really successful in keeping the state going in this vaccination effort. Dave Baden, OHA Chief Financial Officer PDX Red Lot continued from page 20  anyone suffering from side effects: an open car door meant someone needed assistance. Organizers say the comfort people felt from staying in their cars made a big difference. “We were able to vaccinate an Ore- gonian, and she is 68 years old, and this is the first vaccine she has ever received in her whole life,” said Tibbs. “The reason she was able to get it and convince herself that this was the opportunity in part was that her partner was able to be in the car with her and pro- vide that support to her.” As with other vaccine sites, the vol- unteers were buzzing with positive energy. One woman danced for three hours as cars approached, and she used glittery pompons to show them the way to go. “There’s probably no happier place to be than the vaccination sites,” said Tibbs, “Because the vaccine offers an opportunity for hopeful- ness about the future.”