By MARTY LEVINE
Pitt’s Vaccination and Health Connection Hub in Nordenberg Hall should be known for all the services it can provide to Pitt employees and students, but also as a resource where you can ask questions and even get your family prescriptions filled next door at the University Pharmacy — as can your neighbors.
That was the message of two leaders from the Hub and its pharmacy component at the latest Staff Council Spotlight event on Feb. 26.
You can walk in for vaccinations, wellness checkups or almost anything the Hub offers, except for pre-travel consultations about shots you might need beforehand or medications you might wish to bring (since that takes some research based on your age, medical history and destinations). Or you can make an appointment. Kate Brownlee, director of Hub operations, emphasized that its pharmacy serves are a community resource too, selling over-the-counter medications as well as wellness and travel kits.
“We also want to be a destination where you can come and ask questions and be directed” to other healthcare resources, said the Hub’s executive director, Melissa A. McGivney.
“We can also bring the Hub to you,” Brownlee added. Its staff can offer vaccinations to groups in your office and wellness screenings for individuals there, too, or can offer more details about its services to an office meeting, if you wish to schedule such a talk.
The Hub started as a vaccination site in the Petersen Events Center during the pandemic and still offers many vaccines, from yearly COVID and flu shots for people age 5 and up to adult vaccines (hepatitis A/B, HPV, MMR, meningitis, mpox, tetanus and varicella), those for older adults (RSV, shingles and pneumonia) and those needed for certain travel destinations (rabies, polio, yellow fever, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid and Japanese encephalitis).
Free wellness screenings for Pitt faculty and staff with Pitt-provided UPMC Health Plan coverage include a fasting cholesterol panel and blood glucose levels, BMI check, blood pressure and more. You also can earn up to $80 yearly in health incentive dollars for completing biometric screenings.
The Hub’s spring hours vary each weekday:
11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Mondays
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays
11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Thursdays
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays
The Hub’s pharmacy hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays; and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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