Volunteers fuel Seattle COVID vaccination clinic

When officials at Swedish Health Services got the mandate from Washington state to create a mass vaccination site for COVID-19, they knew they didn't have the staff nor the space at their campuses. So they looked across the street.

The hospital partnered with Seattle University, located across the street, to use one of its halls. And to staff the vaccinations, they put out a call for volunteers. Thousands have responded.

"We could not do this without volunteers," said Renee Roassilyer-Bomers, chief quality officer for the hospital and head of the vaccination site. "The sheer volume and number of folks that we wanted to be able to serve and bring in requires…320 individuals each day to bring in that volume. So it requires volunteers to support us because our hospitals right now are requiring all our nurses, physicians and other care providers."

Those more than 300 volunteers per clinic day have vaccinated about 48,000 people in two months, Roassilyer-Bomer said.

Volunteering comes with a perk. They become eligible for a vaccine.

Roassilyer-Bomer says once volunteers begin working their shift, the hospital considers them to be in the state's Phase 1 for vaccinations, meaning they become eligible for the shot.

She added that about 5,000 volunteers have been vaccinated, and about 1,000 of them have come back to volunteer.

Depending on skill level and experience at the clinic, volunteers are handed different color vests. The majority wear orange for general tasks. Those include sanitizing clipboards, asking people to fill out forms, taking temperatures and observing the recent vaccinated to their required 15-minute wait.