DePue native working behind the scenes of the COVID-19 response

St. Bede grad has helped set up testing sites, vaccination clinic in Chicago suburbs

Blake Dobrich chose a career in which he could help sick people.

Not as a doctor, nurse or EMT, but as a health care administrator.

In his current role as business manager for the Community Health and Hospitals Division of University of Chicago Medicine at Ingalls Memorial, the DePue native and St. Bede graduate has played a key role in the facility’s COVID-19 response.

Starting in March, Dobrich was helping manage and direct redeployment of staff to do screenings, work in the ICU or oversee the COVID-19 call center.

Later in the pandemic, Dobrich helped direct the staffing and infrastructure as COVID-19 testing sites were set up for Ingalls Memorial, which is headquartered in Harvey but has clinics throughout the south suburbs of Chicago.

Currently, Dobrich is heading up the COVID-19 vaccination clinic for the Community Health and Hospitals Division.

“To be able to contribute in any way to this once-in-a-lifetime issue, I’m really honored to be part of it,” Dobrich said. “To help support our frontline staff every day – they’re the ones who have been in the trenches, they’re in the ICUs and in the [emergency departments] confronting this pandemic head on – is an honor. That’s the career I’ve chosen is to indirectly help sick people. When I say indirectly, I mean by helping support the doctors, nurses, techs, EMS and all that.

“It’s been a lot of work [to help with the COVID-19 response], but I keep going back to the nurses and frontline staff. It’s been a lot of work for me, but I can’t imagine being on the frontline like that and having to experience the illness they’ve seen every day. All the credit goes to them. I’m really just a background person trying to get everything to work properly so we can get through this pandemic.”

The hospital administered its first COVID-19 vaccine about two weeks and has so far received two shipments of then vaccine, which so far has been reserved for front-line health care staff along with some first responders.

The hospital has about 2,300 employees, and between employees and first responders, Dobrich said 1,705 vaccines have been administered as of Wednesday morning.

Dobrich said the hospital expects to receive a third shipment of the vaccine next week. He said he’s in communication with the state daily about when the facility will get shipments, whether it’s Pfizer or Moderna and how many doses will be shipped.

“We’re doing pretty good,” Dobrich said. “We have some staff who have had COVID in the last 90 days, so they’re not able to get it. We have some who are declining just like everywhere. I would say we’re feeling pretty good though. We’ve had wide interest.

“We’re hoping to get a good percentage of our staff vaccinated if they’re interested and able. We’re not going to get 100%, but we’re hoping to get close.”

Dobrich said staff has been eager to get the vaccine, and so far, he’s heard of no major issues from the vaccine.

“Being down in the clinic and seeing staff get the vaccine and the relief you see on their face is really just amazing,” said Dobrich, a 2012 St. Bede graduate who studied health care and political science at Marquette University before getting a master’s degree at Rush University and completing a two-year fellowship at the University of Chicago. “I’ve even seen some staff come down and say, ‘I was debating about getting then vaccine, but I was talking to my friends and they got it, and I thought this was my chance to protect myself and my family.’

“As you see in the news, some hospitals are having a struggle getting staff vaccinated. We haven’t had a huge struggle, but we are trying to make sure everyone has a chance to get vaccinated.”

Dobrich said the public is “at an exciting point in this pandemic” with the vaccine becoming available and hopes production and distribution can ramp up soon so that a good portion of the population can be vaccinated in the coming months.

When his turn comes up, Dobrich plans to get the vaccine.

“I think it’s really important,” Dobrich said. “We should all be thinking about getting it. I know it’s an individual decision. Everyone should weigh what they think is in their best interest. When I saw the frontline staff getting their vaccines and the joy, excitement, relief and light at the end of the tunnel look on their face, I thought, ‘How could anybody want to refuse this,’ but I get it. I get the worry. But I plan on getting mine and I encourage everyone else to get theirs as well.”