Albany Area Primary Health Care (AAPHC) has launched a major Mass Vaccination program right here in Southwest Georgia.  To date, AAPHC has given more than 4,200 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to our patients and community members since January 2021.   

“We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as one of Georgia’s largest Community Health Centers,” says Shelley Spires, Chief Executive Officer, AAPHC.  “We’ve had other groups, some from California, call and ask for advice on setting up Mass Vaccination Centers.  It’s rare that a medical group could scale-up such a program so quickly.”

With AAPHC’s mission to deliver quality health care to all, the organization is dedicated to caring for its Southwest Georgia community.   “It’s important that our patients and community members have easy access to the COVID-19 vaccines,” says Shelley Spires, Chief Executive Officer at AAPHC.  “We offer both our Vaccination Center in East Albany, as well as pop-up events across Southwest Georgia to ensure everyone in Phase 1A+ can get the vaccine.”

As a Community Health Center, AAPHC doesn’t have a large budget to run the Mass Vaccination Center and pop-up events.  That’s why the AAPHC Executive Team approached things differently when launching their Mass Vaccination Site in East Albany. “I reached out to volunteers and retired health care professionals in Southwest Georgia,” says Shelley.  “Our Mass Vaccination Site is filled with community volunteers, retired physicians, retired clinicians and they each wanted to give back and make a difference during this pandemic.” 

The “all hands on deck” approach allowed AAPHC to open a Mass Vaccination Center that can vaccinate upwards of 500 community members a day.  Vaccine supply, however, has kept the numbers to under 200 a day.  “Our hope is that more vaccines are available to health care providers soon,” says Shelley.  “We’ve been very fortunate to have vaccines arriving regularly, but if we need we had a steady supply it would make things so much easier.” 

AAPHC’s Mass Vaccination Program Includes:

AAPHC Vaccination Center in East Albany

AAPHC is currently vaccinating patients and community members who fall within the Phase 1A+ tier at our new Vaccination Center.  This Center is open five days a week and appointments are available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.      

AAPHC Vaccination Event at Monroe High School

On Saturday, Feb. 20, AAPHC is hosting an off-site Vaccination Event at Monroe High School in Albany from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.   

Community members who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, and wish to schedule an appointment at AAPHC, can call 229-338-7589 or visit www.aaphc.org/coronavirus. 

“Albany Area Primary Health Care remains committed to vaccinating as many of our community members as possible,” says Shelley.  “Our organization has personally seen how devastating this pandemic has been for our community and our entire region of Southwest Georgia.  We want to protect as many of our community members as possible from this virus.”