Spotlight FRONT’n About

All photos courtesy of Carilion

Vaccines for Frontline workers, Carilion executives a step towards “normalcy” >

With the arrival of the first shipments of the Pfizer and then the Moderna COVID vaccines, Carilion Clinic doctors, nurses and other frontline workers began receiving the first of two vaccine shots needed in midDecember. A second followed 3-4 weeks later. Carilion executives and department heads (including President and CEO Nancy Agee, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrice Weiss and Dr. Anthony Baffoe-Bonnie, Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control) also received those shots publicly – to show their confidence in their safety and to encourage the public to get the COVID vaccine when they come up on the priority list. Registered nurse Mary Rogers, who works in the COVID ICU unit at Carilion, was one of the first employees to be vaccinated. Rogers said she was “excited,” to be part of the rollout process. “I strongly support this and I believe in it. I hope in the [near] future to be able to return to some sense of normalcy. That is what I’m banking on.”

LewisGale administers first vaccines to health care staffers >

In mid-December, the first LewisGale staff members from several facilities also began getting the COVID-19 vaccine “so they can continue to do their jobs while protecting their patients, family members, and communities for exposure,” said LewisGale Vice-President Nancy May. They included Dr. Ben Davidson, Chief of Staff and ED Medical Director. LewisGale Hospital Pulaski, Dr. Pro Cortorreal, Medical Director of Hospitalists, LewisGale Medical Center and Viola Plum, RPh, pharmacist, LewisGale Hospital Alleghany. Pat Whisman RN is Nurse Leader, at LewisGale Medical Center in Salem: “my job is making sure the staff has the supplies they need and the support … to take care of these patients.” Whisman has been a nurse at LewisGale for 19 years. “It’s emotionally draining,” says Whisman of the frontline workers doing their job; “[sometimes] patients don’t make it. [but] its emotionally uplifting when you see patients being discharged to home.” As for the vaccines that arrived in December: “it’s very exciting that this is here. It’s something to make … and keep you well.”

All photos courtesy of LewisGale