On opening day of COVID-19 vaccinations at UK’s centralized clinic, dozens of Lexington residents signed up to receive their shots in what many say was an easy and fast process.

The clinic started officially at noon, with roughly a hundred cars in the parking lot. Vaccine recipients – prioritized according to CDC guidelines – were able to enter the vaccination room quickly, moving through checkpoints and the designated queue with little wait.

“Super fast, super easy, super organized and quick,” said Cassie Rowland, a first grade teacher for Fayette County Public Schools.

“It’s been really hard teaching elementary students online so I’m ready to get back to normal, so this is exciting,” Rowland said. She said she was relieved to get the vaccine both for her job and because she’s pregnant, and doesn’t want to worry about COVID-19 in the hospital.

K – 12 employees like Roland were a target demographic for the clinic, which is partnering with FCPS to vaccinate their staff. According to their website, FCPS has 2,692 support staff and 2,928 full-time teachers, all of whom can access the vaccine through UK.

UK’s assistant chief medical officer Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates said UK sent out 10,000 email invitations on Friday night when the portal opened, 8,000 of which were sent to K – 12 personnel in Fayette County.

Cindy Easton, a teacher at a private school, said her school has been lucky to have low case numbers and supportive teachers.

“It’s not education as we know it, but it’s doing the best we can in a difficult situation,” Easton said. She arrived early for her appointment and said UK was “really good” about getting the information out.

“It’s the road back to normal. It’s scary because it got approved so quick,” Easton said, but it’s “what we need to do.”

Many recipients on the first day of the clinic were those in Phase 1B – those older than 70 or those with underlying health conditions. Recipients were overwhelmingly excited to get the vaccine. Kathy Kamber, a recently retired healthcare worker, said the vaccine was a relief after a stressful and challenging year.

“I feel very blessed to get the vaccine today,” said Kamber, who described the shot as painless. She knew why she was getting the vaccine – but that’s not the case for all recipients.

UK freshman Nathan Eapen said he had no idea why he was selected to receive the vaccine. He’s not a frontline worker, doesn’t have health conditions and isn’t in one of UK’s health colleges, which the university has said will be prioritized in getting the vaccine. Still, he accepted the invitation and got his vaccine.

“I think we have to get it now,” Eapen said, talking about society’s expectations. UK has said they will not require the vaccine at this time, but vaccinating college students can be vital to reducing overall transmission.

“When students return to campus, there are a large number of them, they tend to live in close proximity to each other and tend to be very mobile and active in our communities and so from that standpoint, having them vaccinated is beneficial,” Montgomery-Yates said.

Inside the vaccination room, UK workers were focused on efficiency, shuffling recipients from one station to the next. A team of pharmacists prepared doses for administering and those who had already gotten their shot offered thanks to UK for setting up the clinic and making the process so easy.

According to UK Healthcare’s chief pharmacist Philip Almeter, there is “an extreme amount of energy” from those working the clinic. Nurses, physicians, pharmacy students, PAs – all volunteers – are administering shots at Kroger Field.

Leslie Farmer, a teacher at Lexington Catholic, said she thinks UK is doing a wonderful job with the clinic.

“I just feel blessed that I got to be one of the first ones,” Farmer said. She described her in-person experience at school this year as very scary.

“We all just want to be as safe and as healthy as possible, but also that know that mental health is part of it all too and it’s been a hard year for all of us,” Farmer said. So the vaccine offers her hope that “we’re finally heading in the right direction.”

Several other teachers expressed the difficulty and frustration of the last school year. FCPS has moved its in-person date back several times. A limited number of its schools (and private schools) are in-person or have in-person elements.

“Doing it all online has been really hard,” said Ryan Davis, a high school teacher. “It’s been hard to connect with students and keep them motivated and to stay motivated ourselves as educators.”

Davis said the vaccination process was “chill” and was excited by the quick turnaround, since he made his request on Friday, Jan. 14. He said he hopes vaccines mean they can get back in-person before the end of the school year.

“I teach seniors, so it’d be really sad to never actually get to see them,” Farmer added.

Following their shot, recipients were asked to wait 15 minutes inside the room. Dani and Marc Bradley said including that wait, it took only 25 minutes to get their shot.

“I didn’t feel a thing,” Marc Bradley said. The pair was offered the shot because he is a UK employee in IT and she is on UK’s insurance.

“He’s able to work from home, our experience has been very positive,” Dani Bradley said. “We didn’t go through some of the hardships other families did.”

The Bradleys said they were “overjoyed” and “grateful” to receive their vaccines, especially since it means the country is moving forward.

How UK’s process works

As the afternoon rolled on, those with appointments testified to a smooth and efficient process. Part of this efficiency comes from clinic experience itself, but some comes from the easily accessible online sign-up.

Some vaccination sites have been overwhelmed by demand, leading to website crashes and confusion – but not UK.

“We have not been overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to get a vaccine to the point where we would foresee discontinuing signups at any time in the near future,” Montgomery-Yates said.

UK’s capacity for sign-ups is due to a robust IT set-up for the vaccine portal, which meant partnering with the campus’s web servers.

“We need the kind of capacity that can handle UK basketball ticket desires. We needed that high volume capacity that was not going to crash the system, because we put a lot of emphasis on this IT system to make this work,” Almeter said. “And we needed the infrastructure to be there so that it did not get overwhelmed.”

Montgomery-Yates said that within 24 hours of the sign-up going live, UK had received 50,000 requests for vaccines. The two-step request system involved huge effort from IT services.

“We have a form online that you put your information in and you consent and you get notified that that’s there. But no action is taken until we are ready for you to sign up,” Almeter said.

Once a request is received, UK logs that person’s information and sorts them into an ongoing prioritization list. Once someone’s number is called, UK then sends along appointment times.

“Each night we go back and we look at who falls into each category. Who’s registered as 1A? Who’s registered as 1B? And those people get invited first, and then we’ve sort of moved down each category every night based on the availability of slots for that week,” Montgomery-Yates said.

This rolling basis prevents the system from being overwhelmed while allowing Lexington residents to ‘get in line’ for their shot. For anyone wanting a shot, even those who don’t qualify yet under CDC guidelines, “there’s no reason not to go ahead and sign up,” vice president of health affairs Dr. Mark Newman said.

“We’re trying to prioritize as quickly as we can, but understand that it’s never a completely clean bucket of just 1A or just 1B and never will be because people are on their own timelines,” Almeter said.

By taking in requests but not sending out appointments until a slot is available, UK is effectively managing the high demand for vaccines. The appointment-only structure is vital to maintaining an efficient flow within the clinic.

“Having that appointment ahead of time is critical for these long lives. So if you have an appointment, we want you to stay within that window,” said UK police chief Joe Monroe, who oversees the office responsible for installing the centralized clinic.

According to Monroe, on its first day the clinic averaged 80 to 85 people every 20 minutes – roughly 250 vaccinations an hour.

UK’s capacity to give shots is based on their allocation from the state of Kentucky. According to chief pharmacist Philip Almeter, UK Healthcare finds out how many doses they are getting on Thursday or Friday before the next week.

“We anticipate roughly 10,000 doses to go through this week, roughly, 8500, following week, and then with new doses and boosters in the third week, close to 20,000,” Almeter said.

Vaccine recipients will not receive a reminder email, according to the UK workers helping at the site, but should fill out the request form again and make sure to mark that this is their second dose. People who receive the vaccine today should fill out the form the week of Feb. 8.

At this time, the clinic at Kroger Field will be UK and UK Healthcare’s main nexus for vaccinations.

UK is not considering setting up a drive-thru vaccination site.

“That is a very inefficient way to distribute vaccines,” Altemer said. “Some sites are doing it, but we cannot do 80 to 85 every 20 minutes if it’s a drive-thru.”

If UK’s average of 250 doses an hour stays consistent, the clinic can vaccinate thousands weekly.

The clinic will be open Mondays through Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and 9 to 3 on Sundays. On Saturdays, clinic workers will count and prepare doses for the upcoming week.

Sarah Michels contributed reporting.