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September
1, 2004
Little
Rock --
The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) has received Second Place in the 2004 Vision Awards, sponsored by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers (ASTHO) for its entry, “Preparing Arkansas: Mass Dispensing/Vaccination Exercises.”
“This innovative program will serve as an outstanding example to the public health community and will encourage replication of such initiatives in other states,” ASTHO said in its notification letter to the agency.
“Preparing Arkansas: Mass Dispensing/Vaccination Exercises” was a series of exercises the agency performed statewide during the 2003 flu season. Mass dispensing sites were assembled in nine counties, and 13,545 Arkansans were vaccinated for the flu. The purpose of the exercises was to demonstrate the capacity to dispense large quantities of medicines in a short time – in much the same way the agency would do in a bioterroristic event or mass vaccination for an outbreak.
“We are so proud of the colleagues that made Arkansas stand out from the rest. It took hard work and many long days and nights to plan and participate in the nine exercises. National recognition – as well as knowing at the state level that Arkansas is ready to dispense mass vaccinations – is really good news,” Dr. Fay Boozman, ADH director said. “This could not have been accomplished without the hard work of all of our partners in each of the counties.”
ASTHO is an association of state and territorial health officers, and entries for the Vision Awards are judged on a level playing field. Arkansas was in competition with California, New York and other heavily populated states.
The ADH is planning more exercises later this year, and will again dispense the flu vaccine to test the flow of potential patients through a mass-dispensing clinic.
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