Perspective: Boosting our Efforts to Vaccinate America
The nation’s COVID-19 vaccination effort continues to have challenges, and we are committed to working with all stakeholders to make it as effective as possible to protect our patients and communities.
Sharing best practices is a key strategy to meet this challenge. That’s why, working with state and local metropolitan association partners, we’re launching a new effort not only to identify the practices but also to collect real time feedback on hurdles related to vaccination and distribution. And we’ll need your help in providing that information.
We’ll share the feedback with government officials and other policymakers with the hope of getting the challenges addressed quickly, as well as spotlighting success stories so those strategies can be used in communities across the country.
Advocating for More Resources – As hospitals and health systems continue to care for high numbers of COVID-19 patients, many also are working tirelessly to administer vaccines.
Yesterday, during an AHA briefing for congressional lawmakers and staff, Mike Slubowski, president and CEO of Trinity Health; Joe Cacchione, M.D., executive vice president for clinical and network services for Ascension; and Christopher Rehm, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer for LifePoint Health shared powerful examples from the front lines of how their hospitals and health systems are working with their communities to increase vaccinations.
They also helped amplify why we need a significant increase in federal resources focused on increasing supply, expediting distribution, and providing predictability and transparency in the process. More funding for vaccines and the Provider Relief Fund are at the top of our priority list for the next COVID-19 legislative package. (See this week’s Action Alert for more details and other priorities).
The PRF has helped keep many hospitals and other health care providers afloat for the past year, and as those funds have largely been allocated, additional resources are necessary to allow providers to also support standing up vaccination sites, supporting staff and addressing mental health issues for their communities.
Tools for Encouraging Vaccination – We continue to share a variety of tools with hospitals and the public encouraging vaccination.
Last week, as part of our continued partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association we launched a new public service announcement urging the public to get vaccinated when they are eligible, stressing that the vaccines are safe, effective and help us all as we work together to defeat COVID-19.
We also have shared research and message strategies for overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in certain populations, and we’re working with a number of groups to develop and disseminate additional resources soon.
Our national vaccination effort is a work in progress, and we are focused on clearing any obstacles to making the endeavor successful. Let’s keep up the momentum with collaboration, partnerships and trust as we work to defeat COVID-19.