Residents looking to get a flu shot, MMR booster or most other immunizations at the Tooele County Health Department now have more time to do so.
The department’s nursing division is now open to walk-in immunizations from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday.
Walk-ins were previously limited to 1-7 p.m. on Thursdays, but Wayne Lyman, the new director of nursing for the health department, said he had been asked by the public to make walk-in appointments more available.
The clinic was always open to scheduled appointments at any time during the health department’s regular hours, Lyman said. But while talking with residents at the clinic, he discovered that advertising the Thursday block and the department’s separately scheduled flu clinics was causing some residents to assume the department could not accommodate their individual schedule.
“I began to think if we had more time, we could capture more people,” he said.
The original thought behind the Thursday schedule was that, by holding later, after-work hours, the health department would encourage more people to come in for immunizations. But the policy was implemented back when the health department was open five days a week instead of four, Lyman said, and made sense when the health department had a regular 9-5 schedule.
The schedule was never modified to fit the department’s new hours, which have the clinic open from 7 a.m.-6 p.m.
In addition to taking walk-in appointments from 9-5, residents can schedule appointments as necessary anytime the health department is open by calling in advance, said Sherrie Ahlstrom, the health department’s deputy director.
The health department offers most vaccines, Ahlstrom said, including all childhood immunizations, MMR — which, with the measles outbreak in California that has spread to Utah County, is currently in demand — and the flu vaccine.
The flu virus, though not as active as it was earlier this month, is still active locally, so it’s still not too late to get vaccinated, Ahlstrom said.
The only vaccines the health department does not carry are travel-related vaccines, such as yellow fever and malaria, she said.
For more information or to make an appointment, call the health department at 435-277-2300 or go online to www.tooelehealth.org. The health department is located at 151 N. Main Street in Tooele City.