HEALTHY HABITS
VAX TO
R ady C h i l d r e n ’ s i s on t h e f ron t l i n e s o f t h e f i gh t ag a i n s t COV I D - 1 9 THE MAX
B Y C H R I S T I N A O R L O V S K Y
ady Children’s has long been the region’s premier pediatric health care facility, so there’s seldom been any reason for adults to consider it for their own care. That’s all changed over the past year, thanks to the Hospital’s monumental efforts to vaccinate as many people against COVID-19 as possible. As
“In March 2020, we set up several lab systems to do COVID-19 testing. We started with employees, physicians and patients, and then the County asked us to test first responders because of the shortages of certified labs for testing. We started with our health care workers and it expanded from there.” The first doses were allocated for Hospital staff. Abe says, “When the vaccine first rolled out, it was available for people who met certain eligible criteria and was initially focused on health care providers, who were at the highest risk of contracting the virus. We had risk-stratified our staff: The clinical staff in the Emergency Department, the pediatric intensive care unit and the surgical intensive care unit were first. Clinical staff included everyone who was at highest risk for exposure in those departments, like housekeeping, transport, nurses, physicians, translators and more.”
the first hospital in San Diego County to receive a batch of the Pfizer vaccine, on Dec. 15, 2020, Rady Children’s has played a key role in the fight against the virus, working closely with the County government and all local stakeholders to administer the vaccine to even the most vulnerable populations. “Our vaccine rollout was parallel to our testing rollout,” explains Chris Abe, RN, CIC, HEM, vice president of operations at Rady Children’s.
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker