Buffalo VA s Operation New Hope vaccination site a model for the rest of the country
WKBW
and last updated 2021-03-09 17:40:27-05
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) â Since January 12th, the VA Western New York Heathcare System has vaccinated thousands of veterans out of a one of a kind vaccination site based in their Bailey Avenue parking lot. They have decided to call it Operation New Hope . This is the model for the nation about how to go about administering the vaccine, Sean Lindstrom, COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinator said.
The site is supposed to be a 25-bed field hospital, but was transformed into the vaccination site. Officials say it s been such a success since opening, that similar sites are now going to pop up all over the country using Buffalo as a model.
By STEPHEN T. WATSON | The Buffalo News, N.Y. | Published: March 5, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. BUFFALO, N.Y. (Tribune News Service) When staff from the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System weighed how best to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine to eligible veterans, they worried bringing them into the Buffalo VA Medical Center for appointments presented a potential safety risk. So officials got creative, setting up a dedicated vaccination clinic in a large, climate-controlled tent in the parking lot outside the main hospital. Local VA leaders say it s the first clinic of its kind within the national VA health system and it s the reason the local VA health network has provided initial vaccine doses to more than 14,000 veterans, most over the last six weeks.
jyoung@post-journal.com
Steve Kriner of the Olean VA delivers a COVID-19 vaccine to 100-year-old veteran Joseph Brunacini of Jamestown at American Legion Herman Kent Post 777 on Sunday.
P-J photos by Jay Young
Hundreds of veterans from around the Southern Tier visited American Legion Herman Kent Post 777 on Jackson Avenue Sunday to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.
The clinic was the largest rural outreach program that the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has undertaken thus far, with 800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on site for distribution.
“You can see it here, it is a pretty well-oiled machine where they are only on site for 20 minutes, 25 minutes tops,” said Sean Lindstrom, COVID-19 vaccine coordinator for the VA Western New York Health System. “We are able to flip these veterans through very quickly and receive a high number of patients through. What we heard on Friday was that this was going to be the largest rural outreach that the VA has ever done. Not