Baptist Health Louisville Begins COVID-19 Vaccinations

Baptist Health Louisville administered its first COVID-19 vaccinations Wednesday morning, giving the shot to five healthcare workers.

December 16, 2020 – Louisville, KY - Baptist Health Louisville administered its first COVID-19 vaccinations Wednesday morning, giving the shot to five healthcare workers. The hospital received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and will vaccinate frontline workers first, as recommended by the CDC and APIC. In all, Baptist Health Louisville will vaccinate employees on Wednesday and more in the days that follow. These doses are all for the initial vaccine; booster shots will be delivered approximately three weeks later.

“At Baptist Health Louisville, we are grateful for the opportunity to offer this vaccine to our front line employees who are caring for our most vulnerable patients,” said Larry Gray, President of Baptist Health Louisville. “They have been there for our community, and now we want to be there for them. We eagerly look forward to the day that the vaccine is more readily available to provide needed protection for all of our families and neighbors.”

Because the vaccine is critically important to bringing an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following five healthcare workers volunteered and were selected to receive the first vaccinations at Baptist Health Louisville:

• Dr. Subin Jain: A Pulmonologist and Critical Care doctor with Baptist Health, who has cared for the sickest patients in the ICU and has seen how COVID-19 has devastated families.   

• Frank Porter, BS RRT: A respiratory therapist who has worked at Baptist Health Louisville for the last 18 years, and wants to get vaccinated to protect his patients.

• Dr. Anna Hart, MD: An Infectious Disease Physician with Baptist Health, who has been on the front line of the pandemic caring for COVID-19 patients. 

• Krista Kirby, RN: A Critical Care Unit charge nurse with 22 years of experience at Baptist Health.

• Rene White, RN: A COVID unit nurse with 7 years of experience at Baptist Health.   

Baptist Health is the largest healthcare system in the state of Kentucky. Five of the nine hospitals in the Baptist Health system were selected to receive initial doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine—Baptist Health Corbin, Baptist Health Floyd, Baptist Health Lexington, Baptist Health Louisville and Baptist Health Madisonville.

Baptist Health Floyd, which has been selected by the Indiana State Department of Health to distribute vaccine to frontline healthcare workers in Floyd, Harrison and Washington Counties, is expecting shipments to arrive later in the week and will begin vaccinations shortly thereafter.