Penrose-St. Francis Health Services receive first COVID-19 vaccines

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at a major hospital network in Southern Colorado Tuesday.

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, part of Centura Health, will get 1,950 Pfizer vaccines initially. The Chief Clinical Officer for Centura Health, Dr. Shauna Gully, says it’s a monumental day in the fight against COVID-19.

“We are starting to receive COVID-19 vaccines across all our facilities within the state of Colorado,” Gully said. “I think most healthcare providers are just thrilled because we see this as the beginning of the end of this pandemic.”

Centura plans to administer the Pfizer vaccine within 72 hours of receiving it. That’s the timeframe Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wants healthcare providers to abide by.

The Pfizer vaccine is good for five days after thawing, or 120 hours. However, Polis wants doctors and nurses to get immunized within three days to make sure any extra vaccines have time to be transferred to other frontline workers in the state. Gully doesn’t think that will be an issue for Centura.

“We’re going to use every single vaccine given to Centura Health and make sure that it goes into the arm of a healthcare worker,” Gully said.

And there will be a strategy to administering the vaccine to Centura's frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers.

“We are not going to have all of our shift of ICU nurses vaccinated at the same day at the same time," Gully said. "We’re making sure that that goes in phases.”

That way, if some recipients have reactions to the vaccine, it won't happen to an entire department all at once.