Glendale Mass Vaccination Clinic
Story 10

John Warda: So we're here at our Jewel City vaccination clinic at the Glendale Community College. We selected this site because the college is doing remote learning. This is their parking structure that they use for their students and staff. We're on the third and fourth floor. The college made it available to us, but we had to bring everything in to set up the clinic, the electrical power, the lights, the internet, computers. We wanted people to really feel that this was a medical clinic.

Elizabeth Cochran: We didn't have a playbook, per se, that we can pull off the shelf and say, "Oh, here's the ABCs of how to set something up like this."

John Warda: It has really taken a village to create this site.

Elizabeth Cochran: Everybody in healthcare is connected. And so we started calling others and asking, "What did you do? What did you learn?"

John Warda: We've had tremendous support from people across the whole system.

Elizabeth Cochran: We've worked with the city. We work with the fire department, and we work with the police department. We have all come together without any agenda other than to help vaccinate the community, to be able to make a difference and to be able to save lives. Because of that partnership, we were able to set this up in a very short period of time.

John Warda: Despite the fact that it took a month to plan, it only took four days to set this site up. We put a lot of thought into how we laid it out, and we put a lot of thought into what it looked like. A place where people could be confident in the care that they were receiving.

Elizabeth Cochran: Once you arrive, there's no waiting because of the way the lines are set up to move quick, and to be registered and to process you.

John Warda: We have 24 vaccination pods. We have 18 registration stations. We have six check-in stations, and we have a recovery area or observation area that has 80 seats in it. We're able to set it up in a way that it's actually one direct path of travel for our patients. They're able to exit the same way they came in.

Elizabeth Cochran: You get your shot, you wait, and you're good to go.

Speaker 3: This is cool. It's wide open, and it moved really, really fast. So time-wise, this was great. And it's close to my house.

John Warda: We start out every day here with an all-team huddle. We talk about why we are here. We want to inspire folks to do a fantastic job. We get updates on what is happening.

Speaker 4: Okay, that's from yesterday. Okay, good to know.

John Warda: We talk about the events of the day, who are team leads.

Speaker 4: Orban is our pharmacy lead for today.

John Warda:

And we also do some recognition at that huddle in the morning.

Speaker 4:

I know you all did a phenomenal job and your ability to work as a team and be flexible is truly appreciated.

John Warda: On any average day we have between 90 and 100 people working here, whether they're volunteers or part of our staff.

Speaker 5: Okay, have a great day guys.

Speaker 4: All right, thank you everyone.

Elizabeth Cochran: I learned from our team that they are committed. That devotion, that ability to say, "I can make a difference. Let me help you," has really stood out.

Speaker 6: I'm a registered nurse, so I mostly vaccinate, but I really help out wherever they need me. So you can get to see the different, wide array of people. Young, old, all types of people. People seem a lot more optimistic than they were when it first started. So people seem like they have a lot more hope now that at least they know it's not a cure, but it will help them if they actually contract the virus.

John Warda: Our staff is very attentive to not just the clinical work that they're doing, but really engaging with their patients.

Who's got the biggest personality? This guy? You just got volunteered.

Speaker 7: You want to make sure the patients feel comfortable coming in, getting the vaccine. They're looking at that first smile. So I think that that'll help a lot.

John Warda: They'll see your smile even if it's covered up.

Speaker 7: Under the mask?

John Warda: They'll see your eyes.

People are very enthusiastic about the work that's done here.

Elizabeth Cochran: We welcome them when they arrive. We show them that there's no line, that they can walk right in.

Speaker 8: Oh, the effort is great, very clean. Everybody was super nice. So yeah, I think they're doing a really good job here.

Speaker 3: I'm just thrilled that they did this, and Adventist Health, and the college. I'm just glad everybody did this. This is fantastic. We needed that in this part of the city.

Speaker 9: It feels wonderful. It feels like freedom is so close again. So we're almost there.

Speaker 10: So this is a timer. You will go to observation.

Speaker 11: It feels great that things are going back to normal, just seeing more friends and having that time that we lost, is all I'm looking forward to.

John Warda: We are set up here to vaccinate up to 2,500 people a day, four days a week, 10,000 people every week. This has been a great experience to bring hope, to bring happiness and joy to our community, to be able to be part of the solution.

Elizabeth Cochran: There's a future that's going to be different, that's going to look better than it has for this last year. It's been a big challenge. It's been difficult for many. And I see the hope and I'm happy to say that we are part of that hope.