Noblesville Fire Department, health officials push to vaccinate homebound residents
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — The Noblesville Fire Department says the Homebound Hoosier EMS Vaccine Administration Program will help residents in the area who are unable to leave their homes get vaccinated.
The program is a cooperative public health effort within the state of Indiana.
“It’s really important that we are able to get to those people,” said Noblesville Fire Department Chief of EMS James Macky.
The fire department says they’re teaming up with the Hamilton County Health Department to reach these at-risk or hard-to-reach people.
“The thing that came to mind is the fact that we have elderly people within our communities that may be homebound,” said Macky. “They can’t get out to actually get a vaccination and so the question started to come up, ‘How do we handle that? How do we get to those people?’”
City officials say right now there are only 16 people in Noblesville who are listed for vaccination that are homebound. According to health officials, people will schedule an in-home vaccination. Health officials will determine if they have available vaccine, and if so, the fire department’s Community Resources Paramedics will go and administer the vaccination.
“Once we pull it out of the freezer we’re on the clock and then once we pull that vaccine into a syringe we’re really on a very limited window,” said Hamilton County Health Department public health preparedness coordinator Christian Walker.
“So that timing piece and that coordinating with our partners such as Noblesville Fire that’s where it becomes essential,” said Walker.
The fire department says its Community Resources Paramedics have played a crucial role in the city’s battle against COVID-19 responding to suspected coronavirus patients and more. They say they’re prepared to help.
“It’s a little beyond what we’re used to in EMS because we respond to emergencies,” said Macky. “We take care of medical emergencies that’s what we’re used to doing so this is a little bit outside what we typically do, but obviously we can offer that service as well.”
Overall, we’re told this is a step in the right direction to help protect all Hoosiers.
“It really validates what we’re doing,” said Walker. “It helps us push that extra mile and make sure we can help our community as best we can.”
The Homebound Hoosier Program is an Indiana Family & Social Services Administration (FSSA) initiative. Hamilton County resides in FSSA Area 8. Noblesville residents who are homebound are encouraged to reach out to the Hamilton County Health Department to schedule an in-home vaccination by calling 317-776-8500 or 211 for help.