Moderna vaccine on the way to smaller, rural hospitals in Utah

(KUTV) — Small and rural hospitals here in Utah are preparing for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to make its way to them.

In Bountiful, Lakeview Hospital had the vaccine in hand by 8 o’clock Monday morning, started vaccinating by 9 o’clock, and had vaccinated hundreds of health care workers by Monday night. Other hospitals in more rural parts of the state are still waiting, but hope and expect the vaccine will be in their hands soon.

“There was a shot in the arm of energy, in addition to the vaccine," said Troy Wood, CEO of Lakeview Hospitals, after a day of vaccinations. “Now we’ve administered 210 doses, so a third of our staff have been inoculated."

So, what happens next? And how do they get more?

“Once we’ve utilized 60 percent of those, which is 300 for us, then we can order more, which we believe we will be able to do by the end of tomorrow," Wood said.

Over at Delta and Fillmore Community Hospitals, they’re still waiting for their shipment of Moderna vaccines to arrive. Kurt Forsyth, an administrator with the hospitals, thought they’d be waiting a lot longer.

“We had anticipated not really getting any vaccine for our rural areas 'til late January, mid-February. We’re getting it much sooner than expected. We’re quite excited about it," Forsyth said.

Like a lot of rural hospitals, Fillmore and Delta don’t have the ultra cold storage to accommodate the Pfizer vaccine.

“We would have probably had to wait 'til June or later to accommodate that type of vaccine storage," he explained.

He said they don’t yet know how many doses they’ll get, or when they’ll arrive, so they have plans and backup plans.

“We’re not quite sure when it’s going to come, so we have to have a tentative plan, and then contingency plans depending on when it actually arrives."

Forsyth said there haven’t been cases of staff catching COVID inside the hospital, but community spread can be a struggle for staffing.

“It puts us in a really hard spot when we don’t have the personnel that we need to make sure that we can treat people when they come into the emergency room," he said.

So, with the vaccine arriving sooner than expected, “it is a huge relief. It’s very exciting."

Over at Moab Regional Hospital, they do have an expected arrival date — next Monday, said Darci Miller, a registered nurse and director of clinical support services at the hospital.

“We’re praying for enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone," Miller said.

But they do have a distribution plan based on how many vaccines the hospital receives. Moab Regional will start with employees at the highest risk of exposure to the virus, who come into direct contact with COVID-19 patients.

Miller is counting the days until the first shipment lands at their hospital.

“It's the beginning of the end, so we are so excited," she said.

But with the excitement comes some caution. Wood, over at Lakeview, says cases could climb after Christmas. The community should take precautions, but his staff will be ready.

We still have a lot of fight left, but this will energize us," he said.

Wood said the hospital does hope to order more doses on Tuesday if they get enough people vaccinated. He’s hoping for around 500 more.