VACCINE: No-hassle shot

The news is filled with stories about the difficulties the medical community is having getting COVID-19 vaccinations into people’s arms. Health care providers set up elaborate websites and telephone answering services that are soon overwhelmed. Citizen complaints overload newspaper letter sections and social media. Politicians blame each other for a problem no one has a solution for. Be that as it may, here is a patient’s story from an unlikely source.

The Coeur d’Alene VA clinic called last week and asked me if I would like to have a COVID-19 vaccination. I told the caller that I would. Following a brief discussion, we established an appointment for Wednesday at 10:30.

On Wednesday, the guy at the door waved a temperature gadget at my forehead, gave me a short form to fill out, and instructed me to turn it in to the registration desk. I followed his instructions and took a seat in the lobby.

A few minutes later, a young lady called out my name. I followed her into a room where she asked a few questions, told me how the procedure would go, pecked around on a computer keyboard, and gave me my shot. She then parked me in a socially distanced chair for 15 minutes of observation. I was in and out of there in less than a half hour.

My question is, “If a huge organization like the Veterans Administration can filter down through the bureaucracy to our little clinic with the efficiency I’ve described, what do they know that the rest of the medical doesn’t?”

BOB LaRUE

Hauser