DANVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville has been selected as a vaccination center for the COVID-19 vaccine. The first two Tuesday dates are already full.
Hospital officials say they have a low supply of doses, but an extremely high demand, so much so, they are having to start a call center to keep up with the volume of calls.
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical center has been given 300 COVID-19 doses per week. Which will be administered in one day.
Jason Dean is the Executive Director for Clinical Effectiveness and oversees COVID-19 operations.
"We are able to do 36 patients an hour with our set up and they are scheduled throughout the day. They have a certain time they come in. We tell them to come in 15 minutes before their appointment to make sure the paperwork is filled out," Dean said.
Dean says the hospital will be focusing on administering the vaccine to people 70 and older.
"That's our plan, to do Tier 1A and Tier 1B, and then if we have vaccine appointments we can't fill, then we can work Tier 1C in," Dean said.
Vaccines will be provided by appointment only. Just today, Dean says the hospital has received 171,000 calls from people asking about the vaccination process.
"We are going to an online form and a call center, so what that's going to do is put you in a waiting list, and as we have the vaccines available, we will start calling you for the appointments," Dean said.
Hospital officials don't know how many weeks the hospital will be administering vaccines, but their goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible.
