St. Elizabeth Medical Center holds point of dispensing drill

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Story Created: Sep 24, 2009 at 4:42 PM EDT

Story Updated: Sep 24, 2009 at 5:29 PM EDT

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - They say practice makes perfect.

With that in mind, St. Elizabeth Medical Center aimed to kill two birds with one stone on Thursday.

The point of dispensing mass vaccination clinic drill was held Thursday. The idea is to practice emergency or disaster vaccination preparedness, while vaccinating their healthcare staff at the same time.

Their goal is to be able to vaccinate 1,000 people in a 12-hour period.

The State Health Department has mandated all healthcare worked be vaccinated. Linda Kokoszki - St. Elizabeth Medical Center's Director of Infection Prevention says they have to be healthy to take care of the sick.

"We need to be able to vaccinate all of our healthcare workers in case of a huge event, so our frontline workers, so we can take care of those patients in the hospital," Kokoszki said.

We should emphasize this was a seasonal flu shot, and not a swine flu shot! But an H1N1 vaccination will also be mandatory as soon as the vaccine become available, likely next month.

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