Ochsner St. Mary seeking eligible patients to receive COVID-19 vaccine

Those who are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are encouraged to sign up immediately, as Ochsner St. Mary has an abundant supply but is having trouble finding patients to receive the shot.
St. Mary Parish Hospital Service District No. 2 Chairman Dr. William Cefalu Jr. said during Wednesday’s monthly meeting that in addition to the qualifications the state released, to receive a shot at Ochsner St. Mary, a patient must have been a patient at an Ochsner facility in the last three years.
That could include lab work, an X-ray or a visit with a doctor employed by Ochsner, Cefalu said.
For the general public, the vaccine is available to those in Phase 1B, Tier One, which are those who are 70 years of age and above; home health services patients and staff members; ambulatory/outpatient health care personnel; residents, students and staff members of schools of allied health; and those being treated for end stage renal disease (patients on dialysis).
To schedule an appointment locally, citizens should download the MyChart app and fill out their pertinent information. If they have problems with the app or don’t have access to it, they can call 844-888-2772.
The vaccine is being offered in the Ochsner St. Mary Medical Office Building in Suite 500. The facility is located behind the hospital.
“We’re actually in a good spot where we need to get people moving to actually go get it,” Cefalu said.
He said there have been people driving from north Louisiana because they can only get the vaccine in the Ochsner System’s Morgan City location.
Because the vaccine has a refrigerator-life of five days, it must be used or it has to be thrown away.
“We can’t allow that,” Cefalu said.
To his knowledge, no vaccines have been thrown away.
“They get these batches in, and they got to use all that stuff up before they get the next batch, because obviously they don’t want to waste the vaccine,” Cefalu said.
Cefalu, who received his second dose of the vaccine Tuesday, said it is safe with the most common side effect being soreness at the location of the injection.
After getting the vaccine, though, people should not stop wearing a mask and social dis-tancing, Cefalu said. He said the 95% effective rate is factored in while still practicing the cur-rent safety measures.