Christus, UT Health Science Center recognized by governor

Published 5:45 am Friday, October 8, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott has recognized the UT Health Science Center and Christus Good Shepherd’s vaccination hubs for their efforts and wrote appreciation for their hard work in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the state of Texas.

The UT Health Science Center has led vaccination efforts out of its hub since December when it was named a state hub.

Cody Boyd, chief executive officer of the UT Health North Campus Tyler, said all thanks goes to the staff. When UT Health knew it would have an option to become a regional leader for population health, Boyd said his team looked at it as an opportunity to give back to the community.

A team of administration, staff and physicians was put together and the clinic was created.

When the clinic was opened, Boyd said it was designed to administer about 300 vaccines per day, but staff ended up doing well over 1,000 a day some days.

“To be recognized by the governor and to be able to go back to the staff and say, ‘The effort you put, that time that you volunteered, it didn’t go unnoticed. Beyond local, you should be proud of what you did and the state of Texas is proud of you,’” Boyd said.

To date, Boyd said the clinic has administered about 55,000 vaccines since opening.

“(The recognition) is very much appreciated. It means the world. The staff did this on their own, out of the kindness of their own heart, it was self-motivating, so to be able to come back and say our governor thanks you for your efforts… I’m very excited to share that with the staff,” Boyd said.

Boyd said the UT Health Science Center wanted to get as many vaccines out as possible and aimed to reduce COVID-19 numbers.

“To walk the halls of an ICU where they’re caring for COVID patients, it’s almost life-changing, and anything we can do to reduce those admissions and to keep those people healthy, to reduce hospitalizations and just improve the health of East Texas, that’s what we’re here for, that’s what we do,” he said.

The UT Health Science Center will continue vaccination efforts in Tyler, offering booster shots, first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Longview’s Christus Good Shepherd also received recognition from Abbott for its vaccine hub. Todd Hancock, chief executive officer of the Christus Good Shepherd health system, said they also opened their hub in January and have been playing defense against the virus since then.

For weeks, Gregg County’s vaccination rates have been leading compared to Smith County. Although Gregg County has a lower population, Hancock said some things Christus did differently was run the hub extremely well, adding some people compared it to Chick-fil-A, known for its excellent customer service and organized staff.

“People were in very fast with very little wait and we had really high throughputs, so we could put through thousands of people a day with a wait time of about 30 minutes from start to finish,” Hancock said.

He added everyone involved in the effort had volunteered their weekends to run the hub.

“They did this for months, so we accept this recognition with a lot of humility because we know that it represents so many people that sacrificed their time and their energy and the reason they did it was because they really felt that sense of community, and this was an opportunity to do something to fight back against this virus that’s been so disrupted,” he said.

Hancock said the recognition is also validation, along with the community support received, that becoming a vaccination hub and leading vaccination efforts, was the right thing to do.

“For Christus Health and for all of those partners that made this possible, this was truly our finest hour,” Hancock said.