Hill County vaccine rollouts proceeding smoothly

Editor’s Note: This version corrects the amount of vaccines requested by the county each week.

While the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. has seen significant difficulties, Montana's rollout has been relatively smooth, and Hill County appears to be no exception.

"The rollout in Hill County has gone exceptionally well," said Northern Montana Health Care Director of Infection Prevention Alysia Mosness.

Northern Montana Health Care has partnered with the Hill County Health Department, as well as Bullhook Community Health Center, in providing the vaccination clinics.

Mosness said the partnership has been extremely effective.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Larson said the partnership has been excellent on the department's end as well, with more than 2,000 residents having been vaccinated as a result of their collective efforts.

Blaine County's rollout also appears to be going well, though the end of Phase 1B is still a ways away.

Blaine County's Health Supervisor and Lead Local Health Official Jana McPherson-Hauer said the department has gotten the vaccine to 235 people so far and their partners at the Fort Belknap Service Area Indian Health Service and Fort Belknap Tribal Health/Public Health Nursing did a great job of getting vaccinations rolled out to Fort Belknap and Blaine County residents starting early.

"Blaine County is healthier because of it," she said.

However, despite this success, McPherson-Hauer said the county's uptake rate is not where she wants it to be and there is more work to be done to rectify that situation.

She said the department is asking people who are interested in receiving the vaccine to contact them as soon as possible.

"We are spending time reaching out to special groups to ensure they have information about how to access the vaccine if they are interested," she said. "... We are focusing on getting good education out to groups and encouraging everyone to make informed decisions based on science and what is best for them."

Phase 1A focused on front-line health care workers and long-term care centers, and Phase 1B includes people 70 and older and people 16 to 69 with qualifying underlying health care issues as well as Native Americans and people of color who are at high-risk.

Phase 1C will focus on essential workers.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting separate vaccination clinics for veterans.

Larson said Hill County Health Department requests 200 doses per week although the state estimate of amount available is 185, but because the minimum shipment of the Moderna vaccine is 100 the department almost always gets 200.

Larson said the state doesn't have enough vaccine to fill all the requests it receives, but she believes the county has shown that it can get vaccines in arms, and the state continues to provide them with around 200 doses a week because of it.

She said there is no predicted end date for Phase 1B in Hill County but the state's timeline indicates mid-March as the time for Phase 1C to begin.

Mosness said the health department handles receiving calls, making appointments and keeping track of the waiting list for the clinics while keeping people informed and answering questions about the rollout, enabling Northern Montana Health Care to receive an appointment list, plan for staffing and ensure that people have as little wait time as possible when they arrive at the clinic itself.

Larson said her staff has been performing their duties admirably and the county's low COVID-19 numbers are ensuring that the department can do their jobs.

"The process that we have created with the county has worked very well," she said. "I believe that shows when you look at the amount of people we have been able to successfully vaccinate in Hill County."

She said the county has done exceptionally well getting the vaccine to people without wasting doses, which has been a problem in many parts of the U.S.

"You hear stories from other places that they are sitting on large amounts of vaccine and are having difficulty getting it out to people," she said, "That is not something that we are experiencing here."

Mosness said Northern Montana Health Care has a great deal of experience holding and distributing vaccines, having run flu vaccine clinics in the past but the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been a significantly more-complicated affair with the logistics of storage, handling, and this vaccine being a two-shot series making a new process for staff.

However, despite these complications, she said, staff have adapted quickly.

"If you walk into one of the clinics I think that you would be surprised to learn that it is something that we have only been doing since the middle of January," she said.

Mosness said Northern Montana Health Care has streamlined the process and the teamwork of the staff in and between departments has made the rollout for Hill County a very smooth process from it's perspective.

"I don't think that it really could have gone any smoother than it has up to this point," she said.

"It has been a lot of work but also very rewarding for all of us at the same time," she added.

Larson agreed that the clinics have being going smoothy with only a bit of confusion regarding the scheduling and planning of the second dose of vaccination.

She said if someone has received their first dose at a community vaccination clinic at the mall, they will be receiving a letter in the mail from Northern Montana Health Care telling them when their second dose appointment is.

Mosness said the county's COVID-19 numbers have gone down in recent weeks, and she hopes the large vaccine push in the community will keep those numbers low.

She also said she hopes that Montana as a state will have more vaccine available so that the county receives larger allotments to use in vaccine clinics.

Gov. Greg Gianforte has repeatedly stated he doesn't believe the state is receiving a vaccine allotment that reflects Montana's effectiveness in getting the vaccine to people who need it and has made requests that it be raised to President Biden.

As for Northern Montana Health Care's staff, Mosness said, Phase 1A of the state's vaccination plan was done in the hospital proper and its associated clinics.

She said the majority of hospital staff have received their second vaccination and are fully immunized with 75 percent of them having been vaccinated.

Based on the trends across the country, she said, the facility has had a very good turnout.

Larson said it will be hard to tell how many people ultimately choose not to get the vaccine until it is much more wide-spread, but the department has more than enough people on the waiting list for the upcoming weekly clinics, and she anticipates that will continue.

"The Hill County community is doing their part in fighting this pandemic by receiving their vaccination and we greatly appreciate that," she said.