On Monday, January 18, 100 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived at CrossOver. The Virginia Department of Health advised us that we needed to use the vaccine within 7-10 days, so our staff leapt into action. “This was a massive effort,” says Mike Murchie, MD, CrossOver’s medical director, “involving data analysis, changes to our electronic health records procedure, outreach, scheduling, workflow analysis, clinical protocols, patient education and vaccine administration.” But thanks to the hard work, creativity, and flexibility of the CrossOver team, we were ready to hold our first vaccine clinic less than 48 hours after the shipment arrived. We held a second vaccine clinic on Monday of this past week, and a third on Thursday.
So many members of the CrossOver team were key to this effort, from our outcomes coordinator running data reports, to our PharmD residents updating our anaphylaxis protocols. But we want to especially thank two of our teams who went above and beyond to make these clinics happen.
First, our operations center staff answers more than 1,500 calls every week. When the pandemic started, they deftly handled the increased call volume that resulted. When we began community testing, our call volume increased even more. And now, in preparation for our vaccine clinics, they are calling every single CrossOver patient age 65+ to offer them an appointment for the vaccine, while still fielding incoming calls. Enormous thanks to Poliana Costa, Sonia Hemphill, and our newest operations center employee, Elide Maria Islas.
Second, our nursing team has worked so hard for many months now, leading our testing efforts and now our vaccine clinics as well. In the same week that we held our first vaccine clinic, we also completed our 2,000th COVID-19 test. Thanks to Marilyn Metzler, Eileen Schlaudt, Maria Pratts, Liz Mcnutt, Celeste Kilpatrick, and Marsha Miller. We’ve also had help from volunteers Karen Murphy, Sally Mitchell, Terry Duke, Anne Granger, and Dr. Lawrence Lewkow.
The atmosphere at the vaccine clinics has been celebratory and joyful, and patients have been so happy to receive the vaccine. “Helping to vaccinate our patients against COVID-19 has been an incredibly rewarding and hope-filled venture,” says Marilyn Metzler, nursing coordinator.
“This is so meaningful to the people we serve,” says Mike Murchie, MD, CrossOver’s medical director, “and it will continue to be meaningful to them as the vaccine offers life-saving protection.”
