Designing on the Front Line: Vaccination Distribution with NEMIC Activate Fellow, Asthenis
At the end of 2020, NEMIC was asked by Dr. Eugenio Fernandez of the Asthenis Pharmacy, a NEMIC Activate Fellow, to help build out a COVID-19 vaccination delivery program in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The town, having one of the most severe COVID-19 outbreaks in the country, has been a municipality hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The town’s population, with defining attributes such that many of the residents are not able to complete work from home, many share their homes with large multi-generational households, and for many English is their second language, has been exasperated by the pandemic and its subsequent impacts. And our team knew that the need for a quick and concise vaccine delivery was needed immediately.
For this beachhead vaccination distribution, our team was constrained to only vaccinating residents of Central Falls in specific demographic groups. To achieve this, we worked with the Central Falls Mayor-elect, Maria Rivera, and her staff Zuleyma Gomez to utilize the local school’s amber alert system to notify residents about vaccination opportunities and fill our vaccination quotas. We used the software PrepMod as the vaccination registration portal to manage the first and second dose scheduling and follow up visits.
The Knights of Columbus generously supplied the venue, and we developed a workflow for entry, registration, post-vaccination observation, and finally exit that managed the patient flow while maintaining guidelines to distancing and privacy. Health ambassadors supported the non-clinical components alongside EMTs and nurses for observations of post vaccinated patients. The delivery model is now scaling to meet higher vaccination demands as Asthenis and Dr. Fernandez were just appointed to roll out Providence’s vaccination clinics.
A larger observation we found is that workflow systems and human centered design specific to the situation must be developed alongside the vaccination drug and delivery devices (needles and syringes) if healthcare, vaccinations, in this case, are to be effectively deployed across Rhode Island and the United States.
In total, over the 7 weeks of vaccination delivery in Central Falls, we administered 2,980 first and second doses.
We are thankful for the opportunity to put theory into practice on the front line and bring vaccinations to the population of Rhode Island. Interested in getting involved with innovating new systems, services, and technologies that will better Rhode Island’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare us for any future healthcare crises? Join us at the COVID-19 Innovation Response Hackathon on March 16-18 and/or April 12-14 to work with leading local healthcare companies, designers, engineers, and business advisors to address how COVID-19 has affected our communities.
