Riverside County honors local hospital’s vaccination efforts

Riverside County awarded a certificate of appreciation to Eisenhower Health for being one of the county's top vaccine distributors.

The county's public health officer, Geoffery Leung, said over 66,000 vaccines were distributed by Eisenhower Health. That's about one in every 30 vaccines given in Riverside County. The hospital ranks among the top five distributors in the county.

"This is part of the reason why we're able to reopen safely in this community," said Leung.

Eisenhower Health's president and CEO, Martin Massiello, would attend many of the vaccine clinics.

"I really loved going to that vaccine clinic every day because I joked around with people and saying it's the happiest place on earth," said Massiello. "A real joy for all of us have to share on that happiness with them because everyone had suffered for so long."

Christine Johnstone, vice president of quality and process improvement at Eisenhower Health, said it's been a team effort.

"It was a labor of love," said Johnstone.

But their work isn't over yet and the efforts continue.

"It can be easy to forget that about one year ago, at this time, we were in a very different situation," said Leung. "There's still a significant number of people we'd like to nudge into getting that vaccination."

Eisenhower Hospital, alongside Riverside County, is reaching out to specific populations to make the vaccine as accessible as possible.

"One of the things we decided to do was to take the vaccine clinic on the road," said Massiello.

The hospital is doing outreach through churches, senior centers, and visiting homebound patients.