The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

• Headlines
• Sports
• Forums
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story
• Post a comment
• iPod friendly version

Early numbers for Tuesday’s mass vaccination clinic at the Lyon County Fairgrounds were disappointing. Despite the lower numbers, officials are confident if an actual vaccination emergency were to surface in the county, Lyon County would be ready.

Karen Hartenbower, public information officer for the mass vaccination clinic, said the clinic served a dual purpose — to provide the public with vaccinations and to provide personnel from several agencies an exercise to prepare for a mass vaccination emergency. This is the second year for the mass vaccination clinic. All the ingredients to handle an actual emergency were there Tuesday from the personnel to security to supplies. The only thing missing was the volume of people. Last year the clinic gave 1,584 flu shots. This year that number was 1,155.

“We were hoping for more people,” Hartenbower said. “I think in future years the help we need is for the public to show up and to really challenge us with numbers. We want to be ready and this is a good exercise. We can’t always put things on paper. You need to work through them and we need the challenge of more numbers.”

The mass vaccination clinic was a team effort and training exercise for many agencies, including the Flint Hills Community Health Center, Lyon County Health Department, Emporia Fire Department, Emporia Police Department, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, Lyon County Red Cross, Emporia State University School of Nursing, Lyon County Senior Patrol, Lyon County CERT team, SRS, community health center board members, Rep. Peggy Mast, PrairieLand Partners, city of Emporia Golf Course, L-Cat, Lyon County Road and Bridge and Noxious Weed Department. There also were many volunteers from the general public.

“We couldn’t get along without any of them,” said Ann Mayo, director of Environmental Health at the Lyon County Health Department.

The exercise was evaluated by the Shawnee County Health Association and Franklin County Emergency Management.

New to this year’s exercise was security posted outside the building. Security directed traffic into one entrance. In an actual emergency, this would be necessary to control traffic, Hartenbower said.

Lougene Marsh, executive director of the Flint Hills Community Health Center/Lyon County Health Department, said the event was successful despite lower numbers.

“Our event successfully tested several elements of our mass vaccination plans,” she said. “And most components were very successful. We had tremendous cooperation from our community partners and excellent volunteer participation without which we could not put on this type of event.”