Quade Credits Cooperation of Local Leaders, Businesses
“I am always so impressed with the degree of intergovernmental cooperation and the ability to take advantage of public-private collaboration in Geauga County. This is how to solve problems quickly.” – Tom Quade
Geauga Public Health announced March 20 it has released an online vaccination scheduling tool to allow access to clinics hosted by the health department.
Additionally, GPH will begin drive-through vaccination clinics in mid-April at the Geauga County Fairgrounds, in partnership with University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office and the Geauga County Fair Board.
The announcement came days after Gov. Mike DeWine said vaccine eligibility would open to Ohioans over age 40 on March 19 and over age 16 on March 29.
“The timing of the launch of the scheduling tool, the opening up of eligibility to all adults later this month and the start of our weekly mass drive through clinics could not have aligned any better,” GPH Commissioner Tom Quade said in a press release.
The weekly drive-through clinics will provide first doses every Tuesday beginning April 13, 2021, and will require appointments.
Quade said the online appointment tool was created after a phone scheduling system crashed in January and a survey intended to collect information on interest in the vaccine was overwhelmed with entries.
The process was also complicated by GPH tools being launched before the state came up with its phased eligibility rollout plan.
Quade said within days of the phone system crashing, he began working with Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder’s office and local web developers at Company 119 to develop an online scheduling tool.
“I am always so impressed with the degree of intergovernmental cooperation and the ability to take advantage of public-private collaboration in Geauga County,” Quade said. “This is how to solve problems quickly. I can’t thank the County Auditor and his IT team enough for their leadership on this project. We all have our areas of expertise. Mine is public health, not IT, clearly.”
Geauga Public Health and UH Geauga Medical Center will combine resources to staff and supply the clinics with necessary vaccine doses and other supplies, he said. The county sheriff will coordinate additional staff support to assist with the clinic and EMS providers will administer vaccinations.
In an email, Quade said all GPH clinics are for first doses only with the Moderna vaccine.
The county may receive other COVID-19 vaccines in the future, he said, but encouraged people to get vaccinated with whichever is available at the time.
Second-dose appointments will be automatically scheduled at the time of the administration of the first dose and the online tool cannot be used to schedule a second dose.
The vaccination clinic appointment scheduling tool can be found at https://vaccine.GPHOhio.org.
