How an End-To-End Software Solution Enabled Vaccine Accessibility And Health Equity in New Castle County

New Castle County, Delaware makes COVID-19 vaccines readily available for all its residents with the 1health Vaccination Solution

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

New Castle had a challenge: vaccination rates in their underserved communities were lagging far behind the rest of the county. Public health officials faced the unprecedented challenge of quickly scaling vaccination efforts while finding a way to reach and schedule amongst underserved communities with limited access to online communication.  They knew mobile, walk-in vaccination clinics could help them move past these hurdles, but they needed a software solution that would allow them to effectively provide that care.  

It took just 5 days for 1health to create that solution.  Its all-inclusive, HIPAA-compliant vaccination management solution enabled the clinics to accommodate walk-ins, eased the process of in-person registrations, and provided a more reliable vaccine tracking system – all while automatically reporting vaccinations directly to the state databases. With the deployment of 1health’s vaccination platform, New Castle  was able to reach demographics that otherwise may not have been vaccinated.

INTRODUCTION

New Castle, Delaware sought to make COVID-19 vaccinations widely available to its residents through mobile clinics that would maximize vaccine accessibility. 1health partnered with New Castle County to streamline patient intake and vaccine tracking to enable this effective approach. 

Key Challenges:

  • They needed a fast solution – the quicker New Castle could vaccinate their underserved population, the faster they could protect them
  • They needed additional, mobile vaccination events that allowed on-site registration to better reach their underserved communities  
  • Disjointed, manual processes for registering and tracking vaccinations consumed time and resources, complicating the mobile clinic approach
  • Inefficiencies in tracking and filling appointments caused vaccine waste

BACKGROUND

New Castle County’s challenge with reaching their underserved communities stemmed from larger disparities in the population. The average household income in the areas New Castle’s mobile clinics served was over 20% lower than the median household income of the county*. This disparity translated directly into barriers to reaching the population – for instance, attendees of the mobile clinic reported 40% less access to email than the rest of the country**.

This meant New Castle County needed mobile clinics within the community to help engage members and increase vaccination compliance. However, their current systems weren’t able to handle the logistical challenges such an approach required. 

New Castle knew the right partner could help them overcome these barriers and allow them to reach this vulnerable population. They engaged 1health, a leader in open platform software that solves healthcare challenges, to create and implement a solution.

“1health worked with us to customize a platform that included calendaring, waitlists, and automated scheduling in a few short weeks. They worked tirelessly to assist us in increasing our overall data efficiency. One of our most sacred public responsibilities in a pandemic is to protect the most vulnerable. 1health has enabled us to do that with excellence. They heard our concerns surrounding underserved populations with barriers such as language, emails and technology.  They hear our requests and work to make them a reality. Our partnership has been one that has successfully provided a much needed service to the citizens of New Castle County during this unprecedented time.”

County Executive Matt Meyer

SOLUTION

1health deployed a personalized and streamlined vaccine tracking platform for the residents of New Castle in one week. Built with the unique needs of the New Castle population, 1health implemented a unified platform that solved the complex needs of the county.

1health created a vaccination solution that provided an end-to-end process for vaccinations:

  • Ensured easy access to vaccinations by enabling mobile events for underserved communities 
    • Created exceptions for residents without internet access and/or email addresses to make appointments via the phone with staff or volunteers
    • Allowed residents to complete consent forms via the phone
    • Ensured that the platform was inclusive of walk-ins
  • Streamlined processes for staff and volunteers 
    • Allowed team to easily track appointments so vaccinations would not be wasted
    • Embedded special customization for 16 and 17-year-olds being vaccinated for easier tracking
    • Allowed testing site staff to seamlessly promote up-to-date testing availability
  • Simplified public health reporting
    • Created a system that interfaced with the state database to automatically record vaccination
    • Tracked those that had received their first dose elsewhere

CONCLUSION

1health’s innovative platform allows local governments, private clinics, universities, K-12 schools, enterprise-level businesses, and others to launch an easy-to-use, comprehensive vaccination platform in as little as one week.

The 1health Platform can:

  • Increase accessibility to underserved communities 
  • Launch in less than one week and be implemented shortly after
  • Streamline the entire process of vaccination tracking and management
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* Calculated using the average household income in the zip codes of patients serviced compared to the median household income in New Castle County from 2015-2019 as reported by the US Cenusus Bureau** Based on the percent of mobile clinic patients without valid email addresses compared to the percent of Americans as a whole without email access based on a Statista report published by H. Tankovska on February 17, 2021: E-mail usage in the United States – Statistics & Facts | Statista

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