Midwesterners Flock to Register for Meijer Vaccine Clinics
Meijer has registered more than 35,000 people in less than 24 hours after opening registration for COVID-19 vaccination clinics that begin next week at Ford Field.
The retailer opened its online registration process just after 4 p.m. on March 15, and immediately saw an extremely high volume of people register to participate in the clinics. In fact, the registry has grown by 2,000 people per hour today. Since launching its registry in January, Meijer has registered more than 1.7 million people for the vaccine across the Midwest.
"Our stores and pharmacies have played a pivotal role throughout the pandemic — helping customers at the store, building an online vaccine registry and administering more than 201,000 doses to Michiganders so far," Meijer President and CEO Rick Keyes said. "I couldn't be prouder of our quick response, but the work isn't done. We're excited to bring that technology — and our expert teams — to Ford Field to support the State of Michigan and FEMA in this critical endeavor."
Meijer will also manage the check-in process for those receiving vaccines at Ford Field, provide onsite pharmacists for clinical review, and vaccine security and stability, deploy IT development teams and infrastructure, coordinate data submission to the Michigan Care Improvement Registry and preserve the patient's immunization record.
The retailer's goal is to register, schedule and submit the data for 5,000 vaccinations per day.
Earlier this year, Meijer was named a federal retail pharmacy partner in the State of Michigan and has since been named as a partner in the states of Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio. To date, the retailer has conducted more than 2,060 clinics large and small, administering 309,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier this month Meijer partnered with the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) to launch a series of vaccine clinics at its stores to streamline the process for vaccinating teachers and school staff in the state.
Teachers and school staff in grades pre-K to 12 will be asked to verify their school affiliation and have proper identification when pre-registering through Meijer's vaccine registration process. Teachers in Indiana can also register by texting ISTA to 75049, which will help them identify as a K-12 school employee as vaccines continue to become available.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meijer operates more than 256 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. The company is No. 19 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
