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Metro Creative Connection

NFMMC: Vaccine clinics continue to make huge impact

Submitted

Fri, Dec 17th 2021 01:20 pm

Handled over 75,000 vaccinations to date

Guest Editorial by Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center

Over the past year, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center has been at the forefront of the effort to vaccinate our community against COVID-19. Leading this charge is Memorial’s director of pharmacy services, Michelle Lewis, Pharm.D., MHA, BCACP.

Lewis, who was appointed this past spring as a member of the State Board for Pharmacy, has been with the Medical Center since 2005, providing exemplary care to both patients and the community. Along with registration staff and pharmacists, Lewis continues to educate and vaccinate the Niagara Region by hosting multiple community vaccination clinics each week.

This past week, one such clinic held at the Doris Jones Resource Center in Niagara Falls distributed 81 doses to both adults and children.

“There seems to be an increase in vaccine demand in the community, as people are seeing the negative effects on their families, friends and coworkers that has been brought on by the COVID-19 infection,” Lewis said. “It is hitting too close to home for many people and, as they are getting their vaccines from us, have shared personal stories of loss and their drive to spread the word throughout their communities.

“We will continue to serve these areas for the weeks and months to come, as we are scheduling clinics at Doris Jones and Abate Elementary each month in an effort to continue this service.”

To date, Michelle and her team have distributed 13,360 COVID vaccinations. In addition, Memorial’s team played a valuable role through its partnership with the state-run mass-vaccination site that was held at the Niagara Falls Conference Center this past year. Putting the total number of community vaccinations handled by Memorial at 75,489.

While Memorial is not required to administer vaccine clinics, we do so because of our unwavering commitment to serve the Niagara community. Community service is our mission and our passion.

Collaboration is key when measuring the success of these initiatives, and one such partnership that Memorial values is that with the City of Niagara Falls.

“We are happy to continue to provide assistance to our city hospital,” Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said. “NFMMC has been a tremendous partner with our administration in battling this virus. From our efforts to provide funding for testing early on last year, to our investment in the mobile unit just introduced by NFMMC, our investment in the hospital is an investment in our community.”

For more information on Memorial’s upcoming community vaccination clinics, visit nfmmc.org/vaccine.

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