Strategies to Enhance Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccination Services Within Medically-Underserved Communities
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In Northern Virginia, mitigating the spread and impact of COVID-19 through vaccination programming within marginalized communities has been challenging. Structural factors have impaired access to vaccination and socio-political factors have inhibited vaccine uptake. Neighborhood Health (NH), one of the region’s largest Federally-Qualified Health Centers for the medically-underserved, has navigated these barriers to effectively deliver essential vaccination services to its patients and the greater underserved populations of Northern Virginia. This poster will explore NH’s approach to strategic community engagement and vaccine clinic selection, the efficient mobilization of limited staff and resources and the framework for a community-based, mobile model of care. In combination, these outputs have cultivated a mass vaccination campaign that has administered over 58,400 vaccinations to-date, 90% of which have gone to racial and ethnic minorities and 81% of which have gone to the uninsured. Due to its significant impact on advancing access to COVID-19 vaccine, NH’s vaccination program has gained local as well as federal recognition as the region’s most extensive vaccine equity campaign delivered in a community health setting.
- Amanda Hirsch, COVID Response Program Manager, Neighborhood Health
- Jessica McKee, Nursing Manager, Neighborhood Health
