Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center allows people to receive the coronavirus vaccine without leaving their cars. (photo by Cameron Kiszla)

As the effort to protect Angelenos against COVID-19 ramps up, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center is offering one of Los Angeles County’s first drive-thru vaccination sites.

The hospital at 1300 N. Vermont Ave. can vaccinate approximately 80 people per hour – or 500 to 600 people per day – without them having to leave their vehicles, said Ray Hahn, chief operating officer of CHA Health Systems, the hospital’s parent company. 

“We’re very proud of our process,” Hahn said.

Cars line up on the street while waiting to make their way into the HPMC parking deck, where the shots are administered, and so far, Hahn said community support has been very positive.

“We’ve seen people in tears, crying, overly crying, just rejoicing on how wonderful they think this is,” Hahn said.

Dr. Rohit Varma, the hospital’s chief medical officer, added that he believes a drive-thru site is “one of the safest ways” for people to receive the vaccine.

“People feel safe because they’re isolated in their own space in their cars while they wait,” Varma said. “They don’t interact with other people except when they will get this shot, so they feel that that it’s a better option than coming into a walk-in clinic where they’re going to be with many other people.”

People who sign up through Los Angeles County’s website – vaccinatelacounty.com – are given the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by HPMC staff. In accordance with state and county guidelines, the vaccines are limited to health care workers and people over the age of 65. In both cases, people seeking vaccinations must bring proof of their age or employment status.

“Individuals must bring their valid IDs,” Hahn said. “We are seeing a lot of letters from employers. That does not work for us, unfortunately. Quite honestly, I could forge a letter from some employer. The way the current registration site is designed, in the county, anybody could register and say, ‘Hey, I’m a health care worker. But we do our diligence on our part to make sure that they are in fact truly a health care worker or over the age of 65.”

Not everyone is abiding by these rules, Hahn said, and the hospital is “turning away quite a bit” of people seeking a vaccination without the proper credentials, estimating the number of people who do not have proof of employment or age at 10%.

“The process [of turning people away] has been cordial,” Hahn said. “Most of the time, there is kind of the cry of, ‘Hey, I’ve been waiting.’ I don’t think anybody’s blatantly lied, like ‘I am a nurse’ or ‘I am a doctor.’ But there are those who are saying, ‘Well, I’ve been waiting here and it didn’t tell me that I had to bring my ID.’”

For the approximately 90% of people who are eligible to receive the vaccine, the process includes a mandatory 15-minute observation period, which will be up to 30 minutes for those with a history of allergic reactions.

“The hospital is the place to be if you’re sick, right? … If anaphylactic shock happens, we have the best place to get that shock … and our nurses are constantly probing and making sure that we have a line of sight and making sure that we’re keeping a good, good tab on our community members,” Hahn said.

For now, one of the biggest hurdles for HPMC is vaccine availability. The HPMC site is currently operating two to three days per week, depending on the vaccine allotment provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and “we will continue to operate as long as we continue to receive doses from LACDPH,” said Su Lee, the hospital’s director of corporate communications and marketing.

Varma said greater vaccine distribution will not only prevent illnesses and death, but it will allow society to return closer to normal. Currently, that effort is being tamed by two issues.

“We can only give as many shots as what we get from the county. To us, as of now, that’s the biggest piece. The second-biggest piece, from a community standpoint, is that people aren’t convinced about the fact that they should get the vaccine,” Varma said. “I think we need to, all of us, do a better job of convincing them that this is our best chance at reducing deaths and reducing the suffering which people have had.”

Varma estimated that 70% to 80% of people will need to be vaccinated before the pandemic subsides.

“In the long run, it’s important because we want to achieve herd immunity, which means that the overall pandemic will then die down, which is where we’d want to be because we want our schools open. We want to be able to do things like go to games and see the movies and [enjoy] social interaction. Yes, Zoom is great, but it’s not the same as having interaction with people face to face,” Varma said.

Hahn added that, in an effort to get more people vaccinated, HPMC is looking to increase community outreach to “the underserved, to those who may not have ready access to computers.”

“We’re really putting our heads together on serving the underserved in the East Hollywood and the Hollywood community,” he said.

This story was updated at 11:38 a.m. on Feb. 15 to reflect that there are multiple drive-thru vaccination sites in Los Angeles County.