CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – On Saturday, Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville hosted an internal event where employees could bring along another person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine regardless of where that individual falls in the state’s distribution plan.
The event was a result of a vaccine surplus that the hospital had to dispense or let go to waste due to the vaccine’s short shelf life, according to Tennova spokesperson Gail Young. Tennova hasn’t said where the surplus came from but said Saturday’s event was similar to Monday’s vaccine event for CMCSS employees.
Lack of communication
When Clarksville Now asked Montgomery County Health Department Director Joey Smith about the Saturday event at Tennova, he said he didn’t know about it.
“I only know about the Sumner County vaccine from Monday’s storm,” Smith said in reference to the CMCSS event.
Young provided a written response to questions from Clarksville Now.
“Our provider team has been stretched for months to consistently deliver safe, quality care in the midst of the pandemic, and we are pleased that the second dose of vaccination is now in process. The vaccine is a critical tool to keep our healthcare workers safe so we have sufficient staffing to sustain delivery of medical care,” Young said.
“Keeping family members of our workforce healthy is important too, because any positive cases at home can mean our caregivers must quarantine and are unable to work for more than a week. We recently included some family members of caregivers in our vaccination program to ensure all doses on hand were used before expiration.”
Tennova did not respond to questions about how many employees they had already vaccinated against COVID-19, or how the hospital verified that the guests on Saturday were family members.
Who gets the vaccine first?
Tim Chandler, former city councilor for Ward 4 and retired police officer, told Clarksville Now he found out about the event through Facebook. One of his acquaintances posted Saturday that they were able to go to Tennova and get a COVID vaccination because a relative worked there.
Chandler called Tennova to get more information about the event and spoke with a few employees there.
“She said, ‘Yes, this past Saturday we had a special event where we allowed an employee to bring one guest for the vaccination,’ and of course I started quizzing further,” Chandler told Clarksville Now.
He was then transferred to another employee.
“A gentleman answered the phone, didn’t identify himself, and when I asked him about it and said that I basically already knew you had this ‘special event,’ using their words, he hung up,” Chandler said.
Last week, Chandler said, he had regular checkups with his primary care physician and a pulmonologist. His primary care physician had received his COVID vaccine, but neither his pulmonologist nor the nurse practitioner had received one yet.
“This is the very reason that they don’t need to be sending it a private corporation for them to be able to just decide whatever,'” Chandler said.