After a year of COVID-19 lockdowns, business closures, and elevated anxiety, the fight against the pandemic has entered a new phase. On December 14th, 2020, doctors administered the first COVID vaccine outside of a clinical trial. Since then, vaccination efforts have accelerated around the country. Since December 14th, nearly 143 million doses have been administered, with almost 15.5% of Americans fully vaccinated. President Biden has set a goal to administer 200 million vaccine doses by the end of April when many states will begin providing shots to anyone who wants one.
While the vaccine rollout speed is encouraging, there are still several significant challenges ahead before we can put the pandemic fully behind us. First, the scale of the current vaccination effort is the largest in U.S. history. To reach herd immunity, which is the point when COVID-19 will stop spreading in our communities, we'll need to administer hundreds of millions of doses in every corner of the country. An effort of that scale requires millions of staff members to give the shots, handle record-keeping tasks, and speed patient throughput. Even as the number of fully-vaccinated Americans continues growing, regular COVID testing and contact tracing will still be necessary to finally get ahead of the virus and prevent transmission among the unvaccinated. There's still a lot of work left to do.
The final phase in the fight against COVID-19 will require all hands on deck. With that in mind, Scribe-X and our sister company Med-X Staffing Services have added additional COVID support services to assist public health and community clinics around the country. Our turnkey clinical and non-clinical staffing support provides flexible and scalable solutions to organizations attempting to meet the pandemic’s unique challenges.
Our vaccination teams administer vaccine doses, coordinate patient throughput, and document the entire encounter for reporting support. We also provide screening teams to assist with the administration of this whole process.
Our teams have already helped the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department vaccinate more than 100,000 people at one of their drive-through clinics. We've also partnered with Adventist Health — one of Portland's largest health systems — to administer their vaccine clinic.
Currently, COVID vaccines are limited to those at the highest risk of contracting COVID or becoming very ill from the virus. That means that widespread testing will still be our best tool for preventing outbreaks, identifying COVID hotspots, and detecting new virus variants. However, testing is a labor-intensive activity that can pull highly-skilled clinical staff away from direct patient care. Our training ensures that all PTAs receive a Medical Assistant-Registered credential, allowing them to greet, swab, and record each patient encounter. This temporary support will enable clinics to meet increased testing demand without compromising clinic efficiency.
As vaccinations become more widely available, demand will grow. Clinics, in turn, must operate efficiently and speed patient encounters while ramping up their services. That will require a cadre of well-trained and knowledgeable professionals who can handle administrative functions while providers administer shots.
Our PSAs are available to support health initiatives and are trained to ensure effective screening of every patient, document each encounter to support reporting requirements, and triage in accordance with clinic protocols.
Our country can't return to normal until the virus is entirely under control. That's why in the final months of this crisis, it's critical that our healthcare systems meet this moment with as much intensity and professionalism as possible. Scribe-X and Med-X Staffing Services are prepared to support public health and community clinics around the country as they screen, test, and vaccinate against COVID-19.
If you'd like to learn more about how we can help your COVID-19 efforts, contact us today at 503.914.5857 or by emailing sales@scribe-x.com.
