By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Red lights, left turns and pokey drivers are Sarah Schoenherr’s enemies.
Minutes after picking up eight syringes filled with Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Newport, Schoenherr is navigating heavy morning traffic to reach a homebound client in Nye Beach.
On a recent Thursday, she has seven clients from Waldport to Gleneden Beach waiting for their vaccination – and five hours to deliver them.
So, Schoenherr, a licensed practical nurse for Signature Healthcare at Home, spends several days a week driving all over the county delivering shots to the homebound.
Nine minutes after leaving the fairgrounds, Schoenherr is knocking on the condominium door of Robert and Susan Bakalish. Robert Bakalish, 74, is a diabetic who lost his left leg above his knee, making it very difficult to get out of his house.
Schoenherr chats briefly with Bakalish, asks which arm he wants to use for his first shot, and then quickly administers the vaccine. She then sits patiently for 10 minutes, chatting with the couple as she makes sure Bakalish doesn’t have a negative reaction to the shot.
“It’s really wonderful,” Susan Bakalish said of the home visit. “He’s wheelchair bound and it’s difficult to get him in and out of the car to go to the big clinics.”
County taps agencies, own nurses to reach homebound
Lincoln County Public Health is working with three home health care providers to get vaccines to their clients. The agency is also preparing a program to use its own nurses to reach homebound residents who aren’t under someone’s immediate care. It’s a situation being addressed nationwide.
Signature has been in Lincoln and Tillamook counties since Samaritan Health Services dropped its home health care services two years ago. It has 34 employees currently looking after 150 patients, said Angela Ochsner, its Lincoln City-based manager.
Its nurses and therapists look after people for a short time after they leave the hospital, nursing home or rehabilitation center and before turning the client over to a longer-term, in-home caregiver, if they need one.
Ochsner said she called each Signature client, asking if they were interested in getting vaccinated at home, and if so, registered them on the county’s waiting list, and then scheduled their in-home shot. She then lets LCPH know they have a certain number scheduled and sets the day for pickup. Within a month, a Signature nurse will return to administer the second dose.
One nurse can usually do 6-8 vaccinations a day, Ochsner said.
Because the Moderna vaccine needs to be used within six hours of being pulled from the vial, Ochsner said, getting to a client’s home “is very time sensitive.”
“It’s precious cargo in your car and you get nervous if traffic slows,” she said.
Race against the clock
From Newport, Schoenherr heads south to Waldport arriving at 9:30 a.m. at the home of 83-year-old Sally Welch.
“Isn’t that amazing that they come to me,” said Welch, who is cared for by her son, Brad, and others.
“You are an angel,” she tells Schoenherr after getting her first dose. “That’s it? Nothing to it.”
“I like how they’re thinking out of the box,” said Brad Welch.
Schoenherr makes two more stops in Waldport, leaving town at 11:45 a.m. to head to a client’s home near Seal Rock. She’s back in Newport at 1 p.m., then finishes in Gleneden Beach at 2 p.m. – 30 minutes before the last vaccine would have expired.
Vaccine expiration and the schedule can be nerve wracking — and sometimes you have to improvise, she said.
The previous week a client cancelled while Schoenherr was delivering shots, creating an extra dose whose expiration was approaching. Not wanting to waste it, she called a client whose elderly husband had not yet received his shot.
“I told him I was going to drive up and just stick his arm,” Schoenherr said. “He was ready on the front porch with his sleeve rolled up … and we made it.”
Schoenherr is good about taking time to explain forms, the procedure and sit and chat with the client following the shot. She carries an EpiPen and Benadryl in case there’s a bad reaction – which so far has not occurred.
Unlike most, she also realizes that there are hundreds and hundreds of Lincoln County residents tucked away in homes and apartments who need the vaccinations.
“People don’t realize how many people are behind doors that you just don’t see,” she said. “And, they’re very eager and appreciative.”