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Critical Concepts for COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Site Operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2021

Scott A. Goldberg Open the ORCID record for Scott A. Goldberg [Opens in a new window] ,
David Callaway ,
Daniel Resnick-Ault ,
Sujal Mandavia ,
Rodrigo Martinez ,
Michelle Bass  and
Eric Goralnick
Scott A. Goldberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
David Callaway
Affiliation:
Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, USA
Daniel Resnick-Ault
Affiliation:
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
Sujal Mandavia
Affiliation:
Carbon Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Rodrigo Martinez
Affiliation:
CIC Health, Cambridge, MA, USA
Michelle Bass
Affiliation:
Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Eric Goralnick
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Scott A. Goldberg, Email: sagoldberg@bwh.harvard.edu.
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Abstract

Mass vaccination campaigns have been used effectively to limit the impact of communicable disease on public health. However, the scale of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign is unprecedented. Mass vaccination sites consolidate resources and experience into a single entity and are essential to achieving community (“herd”) immunity rapidly, efficiently, and equitably. Health care systems, local and regional public health entities, emergency medical services, and private organizations can rapidly come together to solve problems and achieve success. As medical directors at several mass vaccination sites across the United States, we describe key mass vaccination site concepts, including site selection, operational models, patient flow, inventory management, staffing, technology, reporting, medical oversight, communication, and equity. Lessons learned from experience operating a diverse group of mass vaccination sites will help inform not only sites operating during the current pandemic, but also may serve as a blueprint for future outbreaks of highly infectious communicable disease.

Keywords

COVID-19emergency preparednessimmunizationmass vaccination
Type
Concepts in Disaster Medicine
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e60
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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