An overview of a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign at a prominent Connecticut healthcare system

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required healthcare systems to adapt, innovate, and collaborate to protect public health through treatment, testing, and vaccination initiatives related to the virus. As the pandemic evolved, lessons learned early on through testing and treatment were applied to vaccination efforts. Hartford HealthCare (HHC) is one of the largest healthcare systems in New England and took an integral role in vaccinating patients throughout the region, thus providing one of the largest vaccination campaigns in Connecticut. Early planning for equipment and personnel, in addition to effective communication between providers and patients, was critical in accomplishing HHC’s goal of rapidly providing access to COVID-19 vaccines. The efficient and effective response to the pandemic at HHC was led by the Office of Emergency Management, which worked to ensure continuity of patient care and physician excellence in the face of disaster. Initially, resources were directed to testing and treatment of the disease; as vaccine clinical trials announced successful outcomes, these efforts shifted to preparing for the storage and distribution of a mass number of vaccines. This manuscript details the factors that enabled success in HHC’s vaccination campaign and serves to provide a useful template for similar healthcare systems for future pandemic response.