A partnership between two health systems and a community-based collaborative created highly effective Covid-19 vaccine clinics to rapidly increase the pace of vaccinations in communities of color in Philadelphia.
Summary The Covid-19 vaccine rollout has been highly inequitable, with white individuals being vaccinated at higher rates than Black individuals in 38 states. Structural barriers, including Web-based scheduling and the location of vaccine clinics, underlie the inequity. A partnership in Philadelphia sought to overcome these barriers using a rapid-cycle innovation approach to design and implement a multi-health system, community-partnered rotating vaccination clinic. In just 2 weeks, they designed and launched a community clinic model. As of March 2021, they have run three 7-hour clinics, vaccinating a total of 2,821 people, of whom 85% were Black. Logistical innovations allowed the clinics to operate line-free throughout most of the day and with a Net Promoter score of 94, evidencing outstanding patient satisfaction. Here, the authors describe how they leveraged a novel no/low-tech strategy to enable community engagement toward equitable care delivery.