Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - May 12, 2021

Safely Vaccinating Hawai‘i One Shot At A Time
MAY 12, 2021
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
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Oshift.’ I would not change my career in a heartbeat, nor the company that I work for.”
to where it is today.
“Now, that wasn’t an easy
tization to Wi-Fi, industrial fans and flashlights, in some cases.
nce it was time to roll out vaccines to the public, Kaiser
feat,” Ibanez says with a laugh. “The thought process itself is pretty similar to any vaccination; there’s educa- tion, questionnaires and con- sent forms. However, with the COVID vaccines, there’s just a lot of steps to ensure that the vaccine is still viable.”
“We started off partnering with Native Hawaiian com- munities for their kūpuna, and we branched out to help with public housing and ru- ral areas in the outer islands, as well as longline fisher- men,” says Kimberly Gibu, MSN, RN, senior manager for care delivery with Kai- ser Permanente Hawaiʻi. “We’re seeing people from all walks of life, and they’ re just so grateful and happy to be there. They told us that if we didn’t come, there was no way they could’ ve gotten the vaccine.
was more than prepared, thanks to Corrina Ibanez, RN, BSN, and her multidis- ciplinary team of nursing leaders, pharmacy partners, doctors, allergists and many others. Together, they created a toolkit that serves as a one- stop shop for every little thing one needs to know about ad- ministering the inoculations, setting the foundation for Kaiser’s clinics that now span from Kapaʻa to Kona.
The delicate vials must be kept in ultra-low tempera- tures — for this, Kaiser had to purchase a special storage freezer — protected from light, and some brands need to be diluted, while others do not. On top of this, flying the vaccines to the neighbor is- lands was another hurdle to jump.
(Above) An assemblage of Marshallese COVID-19 Task Force members and Kaiser Permanente Hawai‘i staffers, including (from left) Kimberly Gibu, Meno Bolkeim, Kelly Gideon, Dr. Wilfred Alik, Isabella Silk and Paul Jendrikdrik, posed for a photo at Kaiser’s Kona Medical Office vaccination event.
PHOTOS COURTESY KAISER PERMANENTE HAWAI‘I
ument,” according to Ibanez. “I started ‘version one’ many moons ago and it morphed as I worked with partners on the Big Island, Kauaʻi, Maui and on Oʻahu, and everyone chimed in and we have revamped and edited and made adjustments to this toolkit. We are currently on ‘version 20,’ ” she says with
“Everyone, I mean every- one, leaned in and was will- ing to pitch in where needed to ensure that we’ re not just vaccinating — but vaccinat- ing safely,” says Ibanez.
“It was probably one of my biggest challenges, iden- tifying this whole cold chain management because the last thing we want to do is waste vaccines,” explains Ibanez, who is the clinic manager of Kaiser’s Waipiʻo Medical Of- fice. “Another component to this is that once you puncture the vial, you need to look for
other arms to make sure you don’t waste. It’s a big shout- out to our pharmacy team, who played a significant part in making sure our neighbor islands got the vaccine.”
“Every time we go to those events, they’re busy, stressful and exhausting, but when you leave, you have that sigh of relief, like, ‘Yeah, we did good today. We made a dif- ference,’” she says.
The group leveraged tech- nology, as well as workflows and processes from previous mass vaccination clinics for the flu and hepatitis A, and utilized each department’s strengths to scale the efforts
Considering that each re- gion has its own advantages and challenges, the toolkit is “a living and breathing doc-
These pop-up clinics — which were held in commu- nity centers, warehouses, a basketball gym and even a pingpong room — were made possible thanks to community organizations that supplied a location and helped spread the news.
Grace Quidilla, MSN, RN, prepares a COVID-19 vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Hawai‘i’s pop-up event, held at Waipahu’s Filipino Community Center.
as filling out a form online. However, it wasn’t like that for everyone. Recognizing this, Kaiser’s nurses went out into underserved communi- ties, bringing everything with them from gloves and sani-
“I work with such a great team, who is passionate about this type of work and we just have fun with it. It fills our soul and it’s just so satisfying that we get to do this; it’s an honor.”
a smile.
“This will always be a
work in progress. COVID is so brand new, so I can see this continuing to grow. As we heard last week on the news, we may need boosters now, so this will continue to morph Fand grow with us, and we’ re going to make adjustments to get ahead of this.”
“The coconut wireless is powerful,” Gibu chuckles.
or some, getting a vaccination appoint- ment was as simple
“For me, it all boils down to doing the right thing,” she continues. “Kaiser is all about trying to promote eq- uity, diversity and inclusion, especially in health care. It’s our obligation to the com- munity to provide that care to them.