Charles MGH

I recently was told by my internship supervisor that I would need to get a flu shot before I could work in the lab for my internship. The problem I had was that it was not flu season and most people no longer carry the flu vaccine.

As you can see on this flu shot time line I found on the google, late May is not even on the chart

MIT medical rudely told me to go away and offered no help about other places I could check. Luckily I found a website updated in February saying that Mass General Hospital still had flu vaccines available. I headed down to MGH and I had such a pleasant experience that I felt a need to blog about it.



The flu vaccine is administered in the Walk-In clinic so I headed there when I got to MGH. I read a sign saying I needed to register before I could use the Walk-In clinic so I headed a few doors down to the registration area. I was registered in less than 15 minutes and went back to the Walk-In clinic. I went to the receptionist and told her that I needed a flu vaccine, and as expected she said that they did not have any. I proceeded to explain that I understood that it was out of season but that I needed a vaccination for my upcoming internship lab work. Another nurse standing by confirmed with the receptionist that they did not carry vaccinations at this time of the year. I then asked if there was anything I could do to track down a flu vaccine or anywhere else I could go…and the nurse immediately volunteered to call the pharmacy. Within five minutes they let me know that they had located a flu vaccination shot for me (apparently it expires sometime in June but the shot was not yet expired much to my rejoicing). The same nurse who tracked down the shot for me administered the shot as we chatted about my internship.

Not really a relevant picture...

Overall, getting the shot and the paperwork to document my shot took 10 minutes and then I was on my way home. The entire trip, from MIT medical (next to my apartment) where I was rejected back to my apartment, took less than 1 hour. Like most other people I have had the “6 hours of waiting in an ER for a tetanus shot” experience…so I was pleasantly surprised by the efficient way I was processed at MGH and the helpfulness of the staff at the Walk-In clinic.