Hospital working with Public Health to get people vaccinated

Dr. John Addlesperger, Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s chief medical officer, said he’s working in conjunction with Sheridan County Public Health to get people vaccinated against the COVID virus as soon as possible without overcommitting to the vaccine supply.

Dr. Addlesperger updated the hospital’s trustees on the vaccination process at the board meeting earlier this week.

He said the hospital’s medical staff is almost entirely vaccinated. He said the vaccination process is now moving into Phase B under state guidelines, which is the essential providers including police and fire/rescue personnel.

He said when all of the other essential care workers are added to that, there are at least 5,000 people if not more in the Phase B group. He said not all will choose to get the vaccine, but he expects it will take at least a couple of months to get to the Phase C group.

Addlesperger said that third group hasn’t yet been completely identified by the state.

He said both the hospital and Public Health have received tremendous volumes of calls from people wanting the vaccine, and he said people will be scheduled. But, he said, no one wants to schedule people for vaccinations until they know how much vaccine will be available.

He said the hospital does expect to receive 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 28.