Andover's Nicole Clark On Managing Vaccines At A Local Hospital

ANDOVER, MA — As pharmacy director for MelroseWakefield Healthcare, Nicole Clark has been involved in coronavirus response since the beginning, handling treatments as they became available.

But since the coronavirus vaccines were approved, she said, "This has kind of been my life."

It was for her role in managing vaccine supply and preventing waste that the longtime Andover resident was honored as a Boston Celtics "Hero Among Us."

Her clinic, which she described as relatively small, has administered about 24,000 doses, mostly been the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna regimens, she said Monday. They began with hospital staff then expanded to patients.

Managing the supply has not been easy.

"There's a lot of little idiosyncrasies," she said. "We deal with weekly allocations, seeing what we have available for first doses. That requires a lot of time and dedication."

Clark also helped adapt the hospital's storage for the ultra-low temperature Pfizer vaccines.

"From a pure pharmacy perspective, the vaccines have been tricky," she said.

And that has upped the pressure to not waste vaccines — making sure every dose that gets thawed makes it into an arm.

"We make every effort to manage supply and don't waste doses," Clark said. "We try to be smart about it and not prepare too many ahead of time."

The clinic is also working to make sure everyone has access to vaccines, including through mobile clinics that they recently started doing.

Every part of the process involves large teams of people, Clark underscored. Even the hospital itself is part of a team, sharing vaccine supply with partner hospitals Lowell General and Tufts Medical Center.

Clark doesn't like to take credit, but she is a Celtics season ticket holder, so when she was nominated as a Hero Among Us, it was exciting. She was honored at the team's March 21 game against the Orlando Magic.

"It was really cool. It was humbling," Clark said. "I feel like I am very much a part of a team. It was exciting for our community hospital to get some recognition and for pharmacists. Pharmacy has huge involvement in overall vaccination."

With eligibility expanding to all Massachusetts adults Monday, Clark said she is not too concerned.

"It's always overwhelming when they open up a new phase, but I think we're getting used to it," she said. "Supply will continue to open up."

Her main message?

"Get vaccinated and get it as soon as you can get an available appointment."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.