This month’s First Watch First Responder – presented by First Watch, The Daytime Cafe at East 54 – is Ronnie Virgle!
Ronnie Virgle, medical office assistant for UNC Health’s COVID-19 Vaccination Mobile Unit, is deserving to be recognized as a First Watch First Responder.
Ronnie is the medical office assistant (MOA) for the mobile unit and one of UNC Health’s unsung heroes. As the MOA, Ronnie is in charge of patient check-in and registration at the mobile unit, often the first person patients interact with at the clinic. His warmth, positivity, and courtesy makes patients feel immediately at ease. In addition to greeting and checking in onsite, Ronnie works behind the scenes managing the mobile unit schedule and helping with patient recruitment. He is personally responsible for identifying, calling, and scheduling mobile clinic appointments for people from historically marginalized communities. Without his diligent outreach, many of them might have waited weeks before getting a vaccine appointment or never gotten vaccinated at all. Ronnie also manages the waitlist and contacts patients who are running late to ensure they can still get their vaccine. When he is not working with our mobile unit, Ronnie also supports the permanent vaccination sites as an MOA; these other clinics are always asking for him to deploy there full-time if/when he’s no longer needed at the mobile clinic. Ronnie has played an essential role in reaching people who would have otherwise faced significant logistical barriers to securing their vaccine appointment.
A native of Durham, graduate of Western Carolina University and lifelong Duke fan, Ronnie has played an essential role in reaching people who would have otherwise faced significant logistical barriers to securing their vaccine appointment.
Click here to nominate a First Watch First Responder.
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