The United States and the rest of the world have embarked on the greatest vaccination effort in human history as we continue our battle against COVID-19. On December 14th, a New York nurse was injected with the COVID vaccine, becoming the first American to receive the shot outside of a clinical trial. Widespread vaccination efforts ramped up soon after, and by early February, the number of inoculated Americans had surpassed the country's total number of reported COVID cases. By mid-February, more than 55 million Americans had received their first dose — nearly 12% of the total U.S. population — while providers across the country administered almost 2 million doses per day.
So far, only specific segments of the population are eligible to receive the vaccine. However, with new vaccines nearing approval and inoculation rates increasing dramatically, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's science advisor, said in a recent interview that vaccinations might be open to everyone as early as April. Governments and local health departments have begun to prepare by converting convention centers, fairgrounds, and sports stadiums into mass vaccination sites. As cities and states start the massive process of vaccinating most of the population, they face tremendous logistical challenges — particularly finding enough qualified professionals to staff these sites and administer the shots.
Med-X Staffing Services recognized the immense challenges inherent in these vaccination efforts early on. Under normal circumstances, we help outpatient clinics find temporary or temp-to-permanent staff members in various provider roles. While that's still our company's priority, we also realized our team had the inherent skill and expertise necessary to assist our local vaccination efforts.
Soon, we partnered with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department's vaccination program by providing a team of skilled medical assistants to screen patients and administer shots at a local drive-through site. Located just south of the Seattle-metro area, the county has already vaccinated more than 100,000 people — with 26,000 fully vaccinated. However, with a population of nearly 1 million, there's a lot of work left to do.
Med-X teams are also assisting COVID vaccination efforts closer to home. Our teams staffed the vaccine clinic for Adventist Health, one of Oregon’s leading healthcare systems.
It could take many months to administer vaccines to everyone who wants them. That means our community must continue taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In addition to building vaccination teams, Med-X also offers COVID symptom screening and testing teams to organizations that cannot operate remotely but want to provide their employees, customers, and other stakeholders with the highest level of safety possible.
A symptom screening process typically prevents employees, customers, or other individuals from entering a location before being assessed by a medical professional. Ideally, people are kept physically distanced before being asked questions about their current symptoms and if they've been in contact with someone who's tested positive for the virus within a specific timeframe. Some screening procedures also include temperature checks. If the person passes the screening, they're allowed to enter the location. If they don't pass the screening, the screener provides them with follow-up steps.
COVID testing takes the screening process even further by administering an approved test that detects an active infection or coronavirus antibodies. These tests are administered in several different ways, and, depending on the test type, results are often available within minutes.
Our COVID screening and testing teams can set up and administer your on-site program. Every organization's needs will be a little different. So we can consult with your organization and make recommendations about which approach fits your needs best. We’ve worked with organizations of all sizes, including one of the largest ObGyn clinics in the Portland metro area.
The fight against COVID is currently our country's most urgent priority. We won't return to our everyday lives until the disease is under control and people feel safe associating with one another in public. We won't be able to make that happen without effective vaccination, testing, and screening efforts.
Med-X is proud of the part we're playing to help us all overcome one of the great challenges of our lifetimes. Contact Med-X Staffing Services today at 971-314-5170 or paula@myteammedicalstaffing.com if you'd like to learn more about our COVID vaccination, testing, or screening programs.