Nurses ready to dispense flu shots
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 2, 2004
EVERETT – A supply of scarce flu vaccine for high-risk adult patients is finally beginning to flow again into Snohomish County.
Visiting Nurse Services of the Northwest will hold flu shot clinics next week at Bartell Drugs stores in Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline – two of 11 such clinics it is sponsoring in the Puget Sound area.
Thursday, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., 22803 44th Ave. W., Mountlake Terrace. Call 425-771-3738 for information. Saturday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., 15240 Aurora Ave. N., Shoreline. Call 206-365-5561 Cost of the shots is $20. The full schedule can be found at www.vnsnw.com/fluprogram/index.php. Thursday, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., 22803 44th Ave. W., Mountlake Terrace. Call 425-771-3738 for information. Saturday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., 15240 Aurora Ave. N., Shoreline. Call 206-365-5561 Cost of the shots is $20. The full schedule can be found at www.vnsnw.com/ fluprogram/index.php. |
The organization has 2,400 doses of vaccine, said Diane Kolb, director of business development for the Mountlake Terrace-based group. That’s enough for about 200 high-risk patients to get the shots at each location.
The vaccine is reserved for those who could get seriously ill from the flu, such as people age 65 and older or with medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart and lung disease, patients undergoing chemotherapy or pregnant women.
Patients do not have to bring a note from a doctor to prove they qualify for the shot, Kolb said.
“Basically, it’s an honor system,” she said.
In November, the organization held a flu shot clinic at the Everett Events Center at which 1,700 high-risk patients were immunized.
Visiting Nurse Services has since received more vaccine, in part from its sister organization in California. Horizon Air also provided about 400 doses “because they wanted to be sure that the high-risk population gets it,” Kolb said.
Meanwhile, shipments of 13,000 doses of flu vaccine being sent to local clinics as part of a national rationing system for high-risk patients is expected to begin arriving within days.
The Everett Clinic was told that 7,000 doses will be shipped by today, spokeswoman Cynthia Scanlon said.
“It’s all spoken for,” Scanlon said, adding that the organization has used computers to identify patients most in need and will notify them.
Some high-risk patients have reported they got the shot elsewhere. “We don’t know how many have and how many haven’t,” she said. “The whole goal here is to get high-risk patients vaccinated.”
Providence Physicians Group, formerly Medalia Medical Group, which is getting 1,200 doses, will administer them at three flu shot clinics from 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 11 at its north Everett, Mill Creek and Monroe clinics.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
