Vaccination clinic partnership between hospital, city and county

For healthcare workers and volunteers at a weekly vaccination clinic at Grouse Mountain Lodge being able to assist in providing COVID-19 vaccines is a positive step in the pandemic, but the clinic is also a way to assist their community.

North Valley Hospital, in coordination with Flathead City-County Health Department, is holding a vaccination clinic each Thursday at the lodge focusing on providing vaccinations for residents who live in Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Roughly 400 people each week are receiving the vaccine.

Heather Murray, employee health nurse for the hospital, says providing the first vaccinations to healthcare workers right before Christmas felt like such a positive step, and now the vaccination clinic is an extension of that.

“We really wanted to do whatever we could do to support the community,” Murray said. “The county and North Valley have done such a good job of making these clinics happen, and we appreciate the assistance we’ve gotten from the city and the community too.”

The health department schedules the vaccination appointments for both its own clinic held at the Flathead County Fairgrounds in Kalispell and the Whitefish clinic.

Riley Polumbus, Marketing and Community Relations Manager at the hospital, says the Whitefish clinic has been a collaborative effort with support from around the community. Grouse Mountain Lodge donated the space for the clinic, restaurants have donated food for lunches, the North Valley Hospital Foundation has coordinated and provided additional funding for food, and the City of Whitefish is assisting with staffing the clinics for non-clinical positions.

“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the clinic from the public,” she said. “We also receive great feedback from the staff and volunteers that are working there — that this is the happiest and most hopeful they have felt in a long time.”

Polumbus says the clinic is just one of the ways the hospital throughout the pandemic has been able to adapt and provide service to the community, and it was happy to lead the way on the idea that sprang out of the COVID-19 task force.

The Whitefish COVID-19 task force, spearheaded by the city, involves a number of community leaders including business owners, hospital, school district and county health department representatives. Throughout the pandemic, the task force has created a messaging campaign asking residents and visitors to follow safety guidelines such as wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.

City Manager Dana Smith said the task force saw the vaccination clinic as the next step in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We felt it was important as the county moved forward into vaccinations that there be a place for residents to have the opportunity to get the vaccine locally,” Smith said. “And the county agreed that it was important that there be a location in the north valley that could serve both Whitefish and Columbia Falls, but also beyond that east to west.”

The city, through a memorandum of understanding, is providing non-clinic volunteers who are both city staff members and community members. Since the city already had a volunteer program in place for its own operations, it was able to continue that with providing community volunteers for the clinic.

“We’re happy to see those people that want to get vaccinated,” Smith said. “We’ve had more volunteers than there has been open spots because I think people are happy to see a step that means we’re headed toward an end to the pandemic.”

North Valley’s Pharmacy Director Andrew Matulionis says the communication between the state, county and North Valley Hospital from the beginning in terms of distributing the vaccine has been excellent. He says the hospital had an obligation to the community to hold vaccination clinics here.

“There wasn’t any question that we should do this,” he said. “This means pulling resources from the hospital, but the long days don’t bother me. When you see people come through here you can see the relief they have to be getting the vaccine. This feels like we’re making progress and that’s a great feeling.”

Matulionis is proud of the clinic, noting that “not one dose has been wasted.” A vial of the vaccine contains multiple doses and once it’s been opened it must be used — the clinic has a list of people to contact if they expect to have extra doses available at the end of the day.

“We’re really looking forward to hopefully things opening up more in the next few weeks so that more people can get vaccinated,” he added.

When entering the clinic, people are screened at the door with a temperature check and then fill out a health form, then they proceed to meeting with a nurse who administers the vaccination. Afterward, they move to a waiting area where they remain for 15 minutes so healthcare workers can monitor for any reactions to the vaccination.

Many of the people who came through the clinic last week getting their first or second dose of the vaccination were happy about their ability to get vaccinated.

“I’m excited,” Greg Crawford said. “This is a good idea.”

Terri Dunn, employee and community health nurse for North Valley, says the clinics have made her feel like a nurse again after spending months managing the COVID-19 positive cases of healthcare workers at the hospital. She was among those who had to call hospital employees who had tested positive and let them know their households had to quarantine.

“This feels so redemptive,” she said of the clinic. “It’s so pleasant to collaborate on this effort and it really feels good because people feel like this means light at the end of the tunnel [for the pandemic].”

The Whitefish clinic operates on Thursdays. Hours have been roughly 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but as more phases of vaccination open hospital officials say they’ll be looking to expand hours for those who work during the day.

Murray says the clinics have provided an opportunity to put to practice the incident command system that the hospital already routinely practices. Adjustments to the current clinic operations are ongoing as necessary and, she notes, that conversations are already taking place about how best for the clinic to operate when more vaccines become available.

“It’s really in everyone’s best interest to be vaccinated,” she said.

The county health department is running its appointment-only vaccine clinic in Kalispell about three days per week.

Vaccines are now being offered to people 60 and older, and those ages 16 to 59 with high-risk medical conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis and liver disease. Gov. Greg Gianforte last week announced the expansion to add those individuals to the Phase 1B of Montana’s vaccine distribution.

As of last week, the health department in partnership with Kalispell Regional Healthcare and North Valley Hospital had administered more than 18,000 vaccinations with nearly 6,000 individuals being fully immunized.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are being administered, and the county expects a small shipment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to arrive soon.

Residents eligible for vaccination can schedule an appointment through the Flathead City-County Health Department at https://www.flatheadhealth.org/vaccine-request-form/ .

Once the form is submitted, a health department staff member will contact the person via phone to schedule a vaccination appointment.

The health department says submitting the online request form is the easiest method to be added to the list to receive the vaccine, but those without internet access may also call the COVID-19 vaccine line at 406-751-8119. Due to high call volume, callers may be directed to leave a voicemail with their name, date of birth and phone number.