Healthcare Workers At Hillcrest Hospital Start To Receive Vaccine

MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, OHIO — As healthcare professionals across the region continue to be among the first to receive doses of the coronavirus vaccine, three regional locations of the Cleveland Clinic began vaccinating caregivers this week.

Those vaccinations included frontline healthcare workers at Hillcrest Hospital as Phase 1A of Gov. Mike DeWine’s vaccination scheduling continued. Hospitals across northeast Ohio began receiving doses of the Pfizer vaccine last week before shipments of the Moderna vaccine arrived in the state this week.

Like other essential workers who received vaccinations, the healthcare workers at the Cleveland Clinic and Hillcrest Hospital called the vaccination “a blessing” after months of treating patients who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The Cleveland Clinic saw its first coronavirus patient in mid-March, officials said, and the steady flow of those diagnosed with the virus have continued ever since as hospitalizations across Ohio and the rest of the country continue.

“(You feel) a sense of gratitude and joy,” said Dr. Steven Gordon, the chairman of infectious disease for the Cleveland Clinic said of receiving the vaccine. “This is really emotional for all of us. We hope to be the start of the end of the pandemic. I feel fortunate to have gotten my vaccine, but I just can’t wait for everyone to get their vaccine.

“We still have a little mountain to climb in endurance but I just feel overjoyed. This is the best Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa gift I could ever ask for.”

Like Gordon, others who were part of the vaccinations this week said that they had no concerns about receiving the vaccine, which was rolled out and approved by the Federal Drug Administration earlier this month. Gordon said despite how quickly the approval process was rolled out, no safety hurdles were bypassed or obstructed, which increases the confidence healthcare workers have in being vaccinated.

Alphonso Roberson, who works as a patient transporter for Cleveland Clinic, became the first person in his department to receive the vaccine. While he felt honored that he was chosen as among the first recipients to be vaccinated, Roberson said he can now tell his co-workers that there “is nothing to it” and to stress the importance of participating in the vaccinations as health officials work to move past the coronavirus pandemic once and for all and “get on with our daily lives," Roberson said this week.

“It’s a must – if we want to get rid of this COVID-19 and to get back to our daily lives where everyone can get back with their families and children and grandchildren, yes, I would encourage them to take it,” Roberson said.

“Everyone should get it when it’s available for them to get it. ..it has to be a group effort thing if we want to overcome this COVID-19.”