SARASOTA, Fla — Sarasota Memorial Hospital is working to make sure everyone has access to the coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible.
“Our overarching goal is to get as many shots into arms as we possibly can,” SMH President and CEO David Verinder said.
That seems to be the same answer from all medical professionals when it comes to distributing COVID-19 vaccines. But it’s not that easy.
"One of the greatest challenges about the vaccine was how do we get it to the people,” Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch said.
Wiese-Rometsch is the director of the SMH/FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program. She’s noticed a much smaller turnout of minority communities at vaccination events in the county.
Right now, the vaccine supply is dedicated to frontline workers and those 65 and over. For many seniors, it's a game of luck to land an appointment to get a shot.
Sarasota Memorial is taking a different approach than we've seen. They're targeting the communities in Sarasota hit the hardest by COVID-19.
"We wanted to make sure each part of our population had access to those shots,” Verinder said.
SMH decided to host an event in Newtown, specifically.
"Newtown is one of the most underserved communities in Sarasota,” Wiese-Rometsch said.
“Providing the Moderna vaccine to our patients in Newtown and other area residents who met eligibility criteria during this limited event was the safest and most effective way SMH could quickly get shots in the arms of residents in this part of our community,” an SMH spokesperson said. “It’s an area with historically less access to preventative healthcare.”
Tommy Clark was one of the approximately 400 seniors vaccinated at this event.
"What Sarasota Memorial has done is set the standard for all other companies that have the ability to do something like this,” Clark said.
He says SMH made the access to the vaccine fairer.
"The fact that [they] brought it to the community will give people without access of cars, without access of transportation of any means to be able to get to it,” Clark said.
Marcia Page, another person in Newtown who was able to get vaccinated, couldn’t agree more.
“Because it's right here in the community, it's convenient,” Page said. “I really appreciate that Sarasota Memorial has made this available.”
She hopes they hold another event like this to help others like her.
“And if we have relatives that don’t read or write, we’ve got to make sure they understand how important this is,” Page said.
By looking at medical charts, Wiese-Rometsch says there’s a critical need to get certain communities vaccinated quickly.
"What we've seen is our patients here in Newtown have a lot of chronic conditions that put them at a significantly higher risk,” Wiese-Rometsch said. “If they were to get COVID, their outcomes would be much much more severe."
In a few weeks, SMH is looking forward to giving the second dose to those who have been vaccinated.
We asked SMH if it had plans to host another event to help largely-minority communities, and a spokesperson told us this:
“At this time, we aren’t sure if/when we will receive more supplies to host future events, but if we do, the goal is to work with our community partners to vaccinate as many people as possible throughout the entire community.”
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