Flu vaccines do double duty as distribution exercise

Community Hospital vaccinated more than 90 staff members with the flu vaccine in the first hour and a total of 211 in one day during the Point of Dispensing (POD) exercise last week. Form left Sharon Conroy, Infection Control and Employee Health Nurse, who oversaw the exercise, Becca Mondero and Bradly Langdorf, two of several nurses administering vaccines, and Dannette Kloepping, receiving a vaccine. Not pictured is Dari Olson, Safety Director, who also helped plan the exercise.

Community Hospital

McCOOK, Neb. — Community Hospital accomplished something never done before by vaccinating a record number of 211 staff members with the flu vaccine in one day, during a Point of Dispensing — POD — exercise on Monday.

POD exercises are designed to practice distributing medications or vaccines to a large number of people in the event of a public health emergency. The exercise held last week helped Community Hospital assess its ability to dispense large numbers of vaccine, antibiotic or other medication if the need would ever arise.

The POD exercise was open to Community Hospital staff, spouses, contract staff and hospital volunteers. It was set up with a screening station, vaccinations stations and a data input station, where at the time the vaccinations were given the data was entered into the Nebraska State Immunization Information System (NESIIS).