Fresno healthcare CEO working to speed up vaccine rollout after being hospitalized with COVID-19

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno man is making it his mission to get COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of patients after he himself was hospitalized with the virus.

Scott Wells knows about the virus well as the CEO of Sante Health System.

In December, .just days before Christmas, he says he started to feel sick and later tested positive for COVID.

"Every time I was breathing, it hurt and it just felt strange," he recalls.

He went to Community Regional Medical Center where he was hospitalized for six days and says the sights inside were unforgettable.

"The halls are super wide and they're pushing me through the middle on both sides of the halls. There's a gurney with people in it for as far as the eye can see. It looked like a movie," he says.

Wells says he didn't waste any time once he was released.

He and other Sante leaders started thinking of ways to get more people vaccinated.

Wells says they ultimately teamed up with Sierra Pacific Orthopedic (SPOC), where many Sante employees were helping administer doses to hundreds on Thursday.

"We're trying to open up a couple of additional sites because, as you probably heard today, our site at SPOC was completely overwhelmed," he says.

Sante represents 1,200 physicians, and Wells says many of them are wanting to administer the vaccines themselves to their patients.

He says what's needed now is more manpower, and fewer restrictions to roll out more doses, sooner.

"We set in motion a lot of rules, regulation... so nobody gets sued. The problem when we do that is everything slows down," he says.

Wells says he's hoping more physicians can get vaccine shipments in the next coming days or weeks, and speed up the process to prevent others from getting the virus.