Roche Among Businesses Setting Up Vaccination Clinics
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRoche Diagnostics in Indianapolis is one of several large employers receiving help from the state in setting up vaccination clinics for employees. Bridget Boyle, head of people and culture at Roche, says the decision to open a vaccination site came from a desire to help employees get vaccinated with little impact on their day-to-day duties. “We have about 900 of our essential employees on campus every day and they’ve been on campus through the pandemic,” said Boyle. “So, we thought there’s no better way to provide an easy way to get the vaccine than to just bring it on-site right where they are.”
In an interview with Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta, Boyle said the clinic was opened in stages over the last few weeks.
“We originally opened it up to our essentials and so we have ordered about 1,800 vaccines total,” said Boyle. “We prioritized our essential employees. It’s very easy for employees to walk over to that part of our campus. They’re greeted by familiar faces. The state was so helpful to us in getting it set up.”
As companies continue to evaluate how business will be conducted after the pandemic, with remote work becoming more common, Boyle says Roche plans to return everyone to campus over time.
“We’re doing about 300 vaccines per week and so we’re going to continue on and we definitely know that we will return to campus. We know that we will likely return sometime this summer and it will be slowly; we will return in waves and we’re going to have to follow the CDC and OSHA guidelines. So, we expect that we would have to wear masks. We would have social distancing, depending on what those guidelines are, but we’re really focused on employee experience and bringing people back safely.”
Roche has been an early contributor in the fight against COVID-19. In March of last year, the company began delivering test kits for the virus that causes COVID-19 and has since delivered more than 55 million kits. The following May, Roche received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its COVID antibody test.
Boyle says the effort the company has made during the pandemic has motivated employees to get vaccinated.
“We have been in the middle of this fight against the pandemic for the last 12-15 months through all the test that we’ve delivered across the U.S.,” she said. “That was step one and step two is now the vaccines. We see that as continuing our fight against the pandemic and making a difference not only for our employees and their families, but in the community as well.”
Several other large companies have begun vaccinating employees, including Columbus-based Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI), Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in Princeton, and Sweetwater in Fort Wayne.