County Partners With Ascension Wisconsin To Vaccinate EMS Workers

Press release from the Office of the County Executive:

Jan. 11, 2021

A collaborative effort between Waukesha County, fire departments and Ascension Wisconsin will vaccinate hundreds of local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers against COVID-19. Waukesha County is working with community partners to connect existing health care facilities with unaffiliated Phase 1A healthcare workers, such as dentists, home healthcare providers and other healthcare workers not aligned with hospitals, to the vaccine during the first phase of distribution.

“Community partnerships like this are essential to ensuring safe and efficient delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine during this historic effort,” said Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow. “When organizations like Ascension Wisconsin step up to protect vital health care workers, like EMS, from COVID-19, it helps the entire county by protecting frontline personnel.”

Ascension Wisconsin, an organization already certified by the State of Wisconsin to administer vaccines, will expedite vaccination of approximately 300 EMS professionals by providing use of facilities and current access to vaccine. A consortium of fire departments, established to assist with vaccinating first responders, worked with Ascension Wisconsin and Waukesha County to identify hundreds of EMS workers from dozens of organizations for this partnership.

"Vaccinating EMS personnel is a high priority for Ascension Wisconsin. With the development of these vaccines and the remarkable work of our caregivers and frontline emergency medical service teams, relief is on the horizon. We are actively working with our emergency care community partners across the state and will continue to support vaccinations for both Ascension Wisconsin associates and those who are not employed by Ascension Wisconsin, but who are eligible for vaccination during this phase," said Dr. Mushir Hassan, Vice President of Medical Affairs, Ascension Elmbrook. "Vaccination, along with continuing vigilance for mask wearing and social distancing, is the clearest path to ending the pandemic."

Waukesha County is working to connect additional unaffiliated Phase 1A healthcare providers with access to the COVID-19 vaccine and is assisting organizations that are interested in becoming registered vaccinators. The county will release a series of surveys in the near future to continue this process. These surveys, as well as up-to-date vaccination information, will be available on our new webpage www.waukeshacounty.gov/covidvaccine.

This press release was produced by the Office of the County Executive. The views expressed here are the author's own.