Rome Memorial Hospital received its first shipment of the COVID vaccine and began vaccinating emergency room personal.
Receiveits fit shipment the covidvaccine fs morning the hospital began vaccinating emergency room personnel and those at highest risk of exposure.
Newschannel 2's kirk tupaj spoke to the stafff and reports on a surprise to the dispensing plan.
Rome memorial hospital is seeing more covid patients now than ever before.
The hospital just received a total of twenty two hundred vaccinations, of which 400 are allocated for the first wave of employees.
The staff is hopeful this shipment of the vaccine will bring some relief.
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None sot: emma ingalls, rome memorial hospital director of infection prevention it's been a little bit emotional because i think this is giving people hope when our staff are so incredibly exhausted and overwhelmed.
Emma ingalls is the director of infection prevention.
She's seeing the number of covid patients climb, and many of the cases are coming from small gatherings.
Sot: emma ingalls, rome memorial hospital director of infection prevention despite all of the masking, the social distancing, the limited gathering sizes, covid numbers continue to climb drastically.
Emergency room staff has a higher chance of exposure.
E.r.
Medical director, dr. andrew bushnell was among the first to receive a covid-19 vaccination.
He believes everyone who can get vaccinated should.
Sot: dr. andrew bushnell, rome memorial hospital e.r.
Medical director the virus is highly transmissible.
This is why we all need to be vainated.
Is is why eve singleamerican shn because it is the only way to stop the spread of this virus.
Shortly after hospital staff started vaccinations, there came a twist in the dispensingpe green.
Yes.
Because we need all hands on deck for this.
Sot: kirk tupaj at 4:30 this morning the new york state department of health sent out an email that allows ems personal to receive a vaccination, so rome memorial hospital issued a code green which alerts the staff to prepare for immediate action.
Ems paramedic paul taylor came for his shot right away.
First responders need to register through the email they received in order to get a shot.
The hospital is not able to take direct appointments.
Sot: paul taylor, ceo/ paramedic amcare ambulance we have to have that extra protection so we can take care of everybody ee, cause if we get sick there's nobody to take care of people.
So it is of the utmost importance that we get vaccinated.
Rome memorial hospital is hoping to begin vaccinations in their nursing home as early as monday.
In rome, i'm kirk tupaj reporting for newschannel 2.> a group of healthcare workers
The Emergency Room medical director at Rome Memorial Hospital received the first vaccination Wednesday.
