ARLINGTON, Texas — Based on the success of our initial three community clinics, Texas Health Resources is now offering vaccines to individuals who have registered with Collin County Health Department.

Nearly 900 Texas Health employees are assisting in the four vaccination clinics.

Texas Health launched its first Community Vaccine Clinics on Jan. 12 in Bedford, Fort Worth and Lake Worth. A Plano location opened to community members on Feb. 2. Texas Health Physicians Group is also offering the vaccine to its highest-risk patients. In addition, mobile clinics are working with existing community organizations in medically underserved communities with high rates of COVID-19. All of these clinics are offering vaccines by appointment only.

As of Jan. 31, Texas Health had administered more than 29,000 vaccines to individuals 65 or older or those 16 or older with at least one qualifying medical condition. This is in addition to the more than 32,000 doses that have been administered by Employee Health.

"We're privileged to serve as a vaccination hub and help protect members of the community from COVID-19," said Winjie Miao, senior executive vice president and chief experience officer. "It has been incredibly uplifting to witness the efforts at all of the clinics It's especially moving to see how many people are coming in, and how grateful they are for the opportunity to be vaccinated." 

The clinics have involved quick work from many system departments including clinical informatics validating and formatting the data given to Texas Health by the counties; work between the Virtual Contact Center and Brand Experience to get North Texans an appointment; help from Information Technology Services and Supply Chain Management to get computers, technology, furniture and supplies in place at the various locations; Human Resources efforts to find people to work at the locations; Pharmacy to send the vaccines each day; and support from faith community nurses and the Transformation Office to run the clinics.

Beyond that infrastructure support, nearly 900 employees have also raised their hands to help.

"This could not have been accomplished without the help of the many employees who have signed up to work extra shifts at the clinics. The people coming for vaccines consistently express their appreciation and comment on how smooth the process has been," said Carla Dawson, chief people officer. "Employees helping at the clinics say they find the work extremely rewarding. I talked to several clinicians at a clinic Saturday who normally work in hospitals or THPG clinics who said it was so gratifying and refreshing to be on the other side of the COVID fight. As our volumes decrease, we hope more employees will have the opportunity to do the same."