Oct 5, 2007
Pandemic preparedness to be tested at Wilton mass vaccination drill
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In order to make sure Wilton is prepared to handle a crisis situation, Nursing & Home Care is hosting a seasonal flu clinic at the Miller-Driscoll School complex. The event will take place on Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 8, from 10 to 2.
Unlike past vaccinations, however, the agency will attempt to administer as many vaccinations as possible, to test efficiency and practice mass vaccination skills.
“We’re holding a regular family seasonal flu clinic,” said Sharon Bradley, CEO of Nursing & Home Care in a phone interview on Monday. “School’s closed that day, so it should be a great opportunity to test the town’s public health preparedness plan.”
“Because we are administering flu vaccine, we will either bill Medicare or Anthem Blue Cross, or it will be $35 for the vaccine,” Ms. Bradley said. “If people need a receipt for their insurance, we can surely provide it.”
Ms. Bradley said while the drill will administer flu vaccines, it will also help test the town’s ability to cope in case a public health crisis, such as pandemic flu, arose. The Wilton Police Department will be at the event helping with traffic flow and security, she said. In the event of an actual health crisis, the police would ensure the safety of the public, she said.
Ms. Bradley said the event will also test “what we call ‘through put,’ the speed and efficiency and accuracy with which we can get the public through the clinic.”
“If there was an emergency and we really had to do a large scale clinic, we’d want to make sure we’ve tested those aspects” that will be tested during this drill, Ms. Bradley said.
“People need to know it is a regular flu vaccine we’re administering for the seasonal flu,” Ms. Bradley said. “We’re inviting as many people as possible,” which will help us determine our strengths in dealing with emergency situations so we can “see what we need to work on.”
Ms. Bradley said she was very excited about the “great response” she’s gotten from community volunteers. The town’s Community Emergency Response Team is volunteering, as well as many members of the community, she said.
“In large part, it’s just community residents that have come to a couple of special training programs that we have held for this very purpose,” Ms. Bradley said of the volunteers for the drill. “If we had a large scale clinic, we’d be calling upon the community volunteers” to help run it, she said.
While Nursing & Home Care has catered to as many to 550 people during one clinic, Ms. Bradley said they’d “love to exceed that as a good test” of how well they can handle an emergency.
“Usually on the first large clinic we have around 400 people,” Ms. Bradley said. “We’re hoping to at least have 400 and will welcome more than that. We’ll have flu vaccines so people need not worry about it.”
Nursing & Home Care has been preparing for this event for about a year and a half, Ms. Bradley said.
“Many of us participated in the Westport drill a year and a half ago... so we learned from that, and we’re applying it here specifically in Wilton,” Ms. Bradley said.
“I think it will go very well,” she said.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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