ASHLAND — The Ashland County Health Department plans to purchase a van outfitted as a mobile health clinic to bring vaccinations to Amish and “isolated populations” across the county.
The health department received the green light from the Ohio Department of Health on Monday to use leftover funds from federal COVID-19 stimulus money, according to Jill Hartson, a community health educator for Ashland County Health Department.
Vickie Taylor, the health commissioner, said the $230,000 van should be delivered this week or next.
The van, a used 2022 Ford E450, is outfitted with a generator, two vaccination areas and an area for a clerk to process paperwork. Taylor said the health department will not make new hires and instead will use existing nursing staff.
“The van will be ready to use immediately. We will need to do some training on using the items provided in the van and ensure the refrigeration is at temperature before we use it for COVID vaccines,” Taylor said.
The health department has been looking into getting a mobile vaccine unit since October, according to its cover letter dated March 31 to ODH asking for permission to spend up to $300,000 of leftover grant money received from the pandemic.
In that letter, Taylor said the rationale is to “be able to reach the isolated populations within Ashland County.”
“We have a significant Amish population that is not vaccinated, nor do they test for COVID-19,” reads the letter.
Taylor pointed to ODH data, which shows 60% of Ashland County’s population is vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate 48.2% of the county’s population has at least received one dose of a COVID vaccine, 45% have completed the primary series of vaccines and 10.8% have received updated boosters.
She then cited Ohio Hospital Association numbers that show COVID vaccination rates as low as 9% in Polk and Nova. Both villages are situated in rural areas of the county, and near Amish settlements.
There are anywhere from 1,155 to 3,195 Amish people living in Ashland County, according to estimates from the Ohio Department of Transportation and Elizabethtown College.
Holmes County, which has the largest concentration of Amish communities in the state, happens to have the lowest COVID vaccination rates in Ohio, Taylor said.
Michael Derr, health commissioner of Holmes County, was quoted in an April 2021 story published in NPR saying the county’s COVID vaccination rate among the Amish population was as low as 1%.
At the time, Derr said he and his colleagues held vaccination clinics in rural areas of Holmes County in an effort to increase the amount of Amish vaccinations.
The Ashland County Health Department is following suit.
“The Amish communities are areas we would like to target for providing health services,” Taylor said.
She said the health department has put together letters addressed to bishops that will “talk about the importance of the vaccines and how that can save on other medical costs.”
“We will provide as much as they want and hope to work with them on concerns they might have,” she said.
While the focus of the mobile clinic will be to provide COVID-19 vaccines and testing, the clinic will be used for other mobile health services.
“We will be able to serve all of Ashland County with this mobile unit, but will focus on those who face additional barriers to accessing healthcare services,” Hartson, the health educator, said.
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