Annual flu vaccine clinics: Build your immunity to protect community

Cold and flu season is approaching, and Gunnison County Health and Human Services (HHS) will be offering the yearly flu vaccine clinics in both Crested Butte and Gunnison. Gunnison County HHS will continue hosting the clinics with partnering agencies to come together and not only deliver vaccines but also practice a large-scale dispensing exercise.

Community clinics help county departments and partnering agencies in health care and first response prepare for communitywide emergencies. Planning started this summer to incorporate lessons learned as well as a modern approach — an electronic health records system, Athena Health, which allows for real-time registration during the clinics. Athena Health will efficiently and securely process a patient visit, or in this case a vaccination, through health insurance in real time. For future community clinics, the team hopes to incorporate a self-registration option for individuals or families to register before the clinics. Athena Health is already active at the Gunnison County public health clinic.

What to expect this year

While the setup and flow of both clinics will be like years past, one of the changes will be how each person is registered. This process will be the same as when someone visits their health care provider, with patient information and an insurance card being provided during check-in. During the clinics, registration staff will enter your information for you instead of you filling out forms, with only a consent form to sign.

Another change will be for those with insurance; a hard copy of a health insurance card will be required during registration to ensure insurance information is entered accurately (digital cards will be accepted but may delay registration slightly). If a card cannot be provided, there will be the option to leave the line to get the insurance card or pay the $25 self-pay fee. It should be noted that if going the self-pay route despite having insurance, the vaccine will not be processed through insurance, and reimbursement will not be an option either. Insurance card photos cannot be emailed to staff after the clinic anymore.

This year, the clinics will offer the regular dose, high dose, which is recommended for people 65 and older, and the FluMist vaccine. The FluMist vaccine is a great option for those who are a bit more shy of traditional injectable vaccines.

For staff and public safety, organizers ask people to use the designated routes noted in yellow on the map for the walk-up clinic. Pets should not be brought to either clinic. The map of the Gunnison clinic has been provided on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CVjzxYPPL/. The Crested Butte clinic event page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/share/18CS9nUbhJ/.