1. Mass Vaccination of a Target Population
Lisa C. Swank, BSN, RN and Andrew Bernstein, MD, MPH
Public Health Preparedness and Response Department
Harford County Health Department, Harford County, Maryland
The Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI), is a national program designed to prepare urban metropolitan cities to medicate their entire population in a 48-hour period. This is a unique challenge for every CRI community. Capitalizing on a state-wide initiative to vaccinate elementary school children against influenza the Harford County Health Department was able to:
Bring together over 160 staff and volunteers from five
different agencies to form 16 teams.
Vaccinate over 8,000 students in 32 elementary schools in less than 16 hours (for a maximum throughput of over
1,000 children/hr).
Does your mass vaccination plan describe the job of each team member and will you be able to provide the teams with the supplies needed to carry out their task?
The Harford County Health Department developed a comprehensive model of staffing and pre-distribution of supplies that allowed efficient delivery of care in an emergent setting.
What are three things that your county can do to have a successful school-based vaccination program?
Talk with your School Nurse Coordinator to find out how best to partner with the school system to begin a seasonal flu program for your elementary schools. Identify how teams could be formed using medical and non-medical personnel. Consider possible funding sources that could assist with the cost of such a project.
Each team was provided with a sharps box, supply box, and cooler with vaccine.
Each supply box contained clinic supplies, emergency supplies, communication equipment, protocol book, and school information.
Who will help you when mass vaccination in an emergency becomes a necessity?
The Harford County Health Department partnered with Harford County Public Schools, the University of Maryland School of Nursing, a local nurse staffing agency and nurse volunteers to vaccinate every eligible child age 5-11 with the influenza nasal-spray, FluMist®, in two days.
Is your vaccination plan easy to carry out for those who receive just in time training?
The Harford County Health Department provided just in time training to staff on the morning of the first day of vaccination. Although team members received the same directions, we found that each team developed their own style of carrying out the critical steps of the vaccination plan.
Conclusions
1) We were able to demonstrate a successful school-based mass vaccination program that can be accomplished in a 48- hour period using medical and non-medical personnel.
2) School based distribution models allow for rapid processing and treatment of citizens in a CRI scenario. Under emergent conditions this model can be easily scaled up (using conservative estimates) to allow over 1,500 citizens to be processed and treated per hour per Point of Distribution (POD).
3) “Just in time training” schematics provide adequate training and help avoid the costly and difficult issue of having to maintain an active volunteer corps for CRI.
4) The project enhanced community awareness and knowledge of the importance of obtaining annual flu vaccinations and will lead to better acceptance of this model of distribution during a CRI event.
School packets had each eligible student’s Parent Information Letter/Second Dose Consent Form separated by class.
Simplicity =
Understanding
For more information on this project, please contact:
Lisa Swank, BSN, RN at