OAHHS Hospital Voice Spring/Summer 2021

10 » A magazine for and about Oregon Community Hospitals. At first, Salem Health staffers were volunteering to pull extra shifts to keep the fairgrounds running. The question of whether that approach could be sustained in the longer run was resolved when Gov. Kate Brown announced, on January 8, that the Oregon National Guard would be sent to Salem to help with the mass vacci- nation effort—a pleasant surprise to Nester Wolfe, who found out while watching the governor’s press conference that day. By Jan- uary 12, the citizen-soldiers of the Guard were on duty, providing a critical assist. “We were quickly able to incorpo- rate them and figure out how we were going to use them, and ori- ent them,” Nester Wolfe said. “They not only helped us on the administration side, with individ- uals that are trained as medics, but they’ve also helped us on the logistics side—monitoring the lines, and making sure people are parked properly, and helping get people into the building safely, if they need assistance.” As the mass approach to vaccina- tions winds down, Salem Health and its partners are setting their sights on more targeted, smaller- scale inoculation efforts, reflecting national trends. The change also jibes with President Biden declar- ing June a “National Month of Action” to help meet his own July 4 deadline for having 70 percent of U.S. adults at least partly vacci- nated against the coronavirus. “Now we’re trying to convince more people to get their shots, people who might not have been as motivated to get to the fair- grounds as soon as possible,” said Katrina Rothenberger, director of the Public Health Division for Marion County Health & Human Services—and someone Salem Health’s Franke said he has on speed dial. “We’re shifting the strategy a little bit to go to where people are.” And proximity does seem to help. In late April, for example, more than three months after the fair- grounds site had opened, a mobile vaccination clinic—this one run by Falck, one of several ambu- lance companies working with Marion County—was set up at the Keizer Civic Center, just a few miles up the road from the fair- grounds. Some 200 appointment slots filled up within 12 hours, Rothenberger said. Bringing vaccines to where people are has also proved effective in more remote enclaves, like Falls City, nestled in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, about 25 miles west of Salem. Salem Health’s Mobile Vaccine Team came to the town of about 900 residents in central Polk County on April 9 and adminis- tered 150 of the Johnson & John- son single-dose vaccines, said Jeremy Gordon, the Falls City mayor. “That meant that on a sin- gle day, about 17 percent of the city’s population got inoculated against COVID-19. The public health impacts on the community cannot be understated.” The event was planned and pro- moted like any other community event, making it the kind of smaller-scale logistical achieve- ment that could become more commonplace. “We used the Community Center and Fire Hall, a familiar, welcom- ing place that is centrally located,” said Gordon, who by then had received his first dose of the Mod- erna vaccine. “It was as much a social event as it was a public health event, and some folks were literally dancing in line, excited for their opportunity to become vaccinated and visit with neigh- bors. People of all ages signed up, from high school seniors to senior residents.” As the mass approach to vaccinations winds down, Salem Health and its partners are setting their sights on more targeted, smaller-scale inoculation efforts. The change also jibes with President Biden declaring June a “National Month of Action” to help meet his own July 4 deadline for having 70 percent of U.S. adults at least partly vaccinated.