By By Kerry Whipple Bean
publisher
Hundreds of cars moved smoothly through an assembly line of sorts Friday afternoon as the Alabama Department of Public Health administered drive-through flu shots to Brewton area residents.
First stop, pick up a clipboard; second stop, fill it out and drop it off; third stop, roll up your sleeve; fourth stop, pick up a packet of flu information.
The drive-through event — held amid a few mooing cows just beside the Extension Service’s stockyard — was not just an opportunity to deliver the flu vaccine to residents, Elliott said. It was also a drill that enabled health department employees to put their emergency plan into action.
Such a plan would also be used if a massive flu epidemic occurred.
The health department worked with the Escambia County Emergency Management office and the Red Cross to put on the event.
In the first hour Friday afternoon, nurses inoculated 224 people. In Atmore that morning, health department workers served about 600 people, Elliott said. From the time a car drove up until it drove away, the process only took about five minutes. Two nurses’ stations were set up to deliver shots.
Elliott said the drill gave him and ADPH employees an idea of how they can improve the process in the case of an emergency.