{"id":17259,"date":"2021-01-26T21:01:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T05:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=17259"},"modified":"2021-02-02T21:18:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:18:18","slug":"west-valley-hospital-moves-second-vaccine-distribution-site-to-wou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/west-valley-hospital-moves-second-vaccine-distribution-site-to-wou\/","title":{"rendered":"West Valley Hospital moves second vaccine distribution site to WOU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Western\u2019s Pacific Room is being used to allocate COVD-19 vaccine during Phase 1A <\/em><\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, West Valley Hospital relocated their second distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine from the Polk County fairgrounds to Western\u2019s campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \u201cWe were able to put up our first week there,\u201d said Pathway Program and Community Outreach Administrator Jenny Von Derahe. \u201cWe moved here because it\u2019s a central location and the technology is adequate for our needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Von Derahe, the clinic was furnished in a day with the help of hospital facility workers, the environmental services team and kitchen staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels safer and more comfortable than the fairgrounds,\u201d said Polk County resident Wendy Brockhouse. \u201cIt just seemed weird in the big old barns \u2026 this just seems more a part of the community and safer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At this time Western is not charging West Valley to rent out the Pacific Room. According to Von Derahe, Western is not funding employment for the workers or volunteers of the clinic, however there are discussions of potentially allowing Western students interested in the medical field to volunteer at the clinic. Additionally, the clinic is not administering vaccines to administrators, faculty, staff or students unless they qualify within Phase 1A.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne positive that\u2019s come out is the collaborations that have taken place,\u201d said Western Alumnus and District 1 Polk County Fire Chief Ben Stange.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stange explained that Western has worked extensively with the community to facilitate a functional clinic on its campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pacific Room would normally be used for this or that \u2026 but we (Western) can\u2019t have events so it\u2019s available. So what can we do to help the larger cause,\u201dsaid Stange.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Oregon Health Authority, Polk County has partially vaccinated 8.5% of its population and fully vaccinated less than 1% of the population. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been such a huge deal to our people,\u201d said Stange. \u201cWe were transporting positive patients every couple days, and it\u2019s been difficult to see. The opportunity to actually hands on start to fix a problem that we\u2019ve really felt we\u2019ve had zero control over has been nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stange explained that, just like other health care professionals, their focus is to take care of people during emergency situations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been anything really till this moment that we\u2019ve felt like we can do to make a large impact,\u201d said Stange.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this time, West Valley is charging a $60 administration fee for the vaccine that will be billed to the patient\u2019s insurance. If uninsured, the hospital waives the fee. Due to the unpredictability of vaccine dose delivery, clinics are not open daily. To learn about hours and vaccination qualifications, visit their website at salemhealth.org.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western\u2019s Pacific Room is being used to allocate COVD-19 vaccine during Phase 1A\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":17235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[202,508,359,626,143,507,146,145,627,506,39],"class_list":["post-17259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-covid","tag-covid-19-vaccines","tag-covid19","tag-moderna","tag-news","tag-oregon","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-carpenter","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccines","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}