SVMC and VTDOH to Hold Online COVID-19 Information Session

With cooperation from the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce and CAT-TV

BENNINGTON, VT—January 15, 2021—Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), and Bennington’s office of the Vermont Department of Health will appear in a digital information session regarding the COVID-19 vaccine distribution at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19.

The event is made possible with cooperation from CAT-TV and the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Members of the public are invited to view and ask questions during the live broadcast at www.facebook.com/CATTVbennington/. The program will also air on CAT-TV’s public channel 1075.

The session will feature SVMC’s Chief Medical Officer Trey Dobson, MD, and Bennington’s Public Health Services District Director for the Vermont Department of Health Megan Herrington. They will discuss the status of a community vaccine clinic and answer questions. The Chamber’s Executive Director Matthew Harrington will moderate.

Dr. Dobson is an emergency medicine physician with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, an instructor of Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, and the chief medical officer for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vermont. He serves on the Medical Executive Committee of Dartmouth-Hitchock and will join the Board of Trustees in January 2021. He is the past president of the Vermont Medical Society and currently sits on the Governance Council. He performs medical practice peer review for the Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care, a nonprofit organization designated by the Vermont Legislature. Prior to entering a career in medicine, Trey obtained a master's in Geology. He earned his medical degree at The University of Tennessee and completed residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia. 

Ms. Herrington relocated from New Orleans to join the Vermont Department of Health in May 2019. In New Orleans, Megan completed her year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA, worked as an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist for the Louisiana Department of Health. While working on food insecurity issues with Second Harvest, she cultivated a passion for systems level change to address food insecurity and public health. Since joining VDH, Megan has focused on building community partnerships, cultivating local public health initiatives, and the COVID response. Megan earned her Master of Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2010.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care is among the most lauded small rural health systems in the nation. It ranked forth nationwide for the value of care it provides by the Lown Institute Hospital Index. It is a four-time recipient of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence. It has also received the highest marks possible from The Joint Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Leapfrog Group. 

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.