Selected Podcast
Ep. 11: Ensuring Equitable Access to the Shot of Hope (COVID-19 Vaccine)
On this episode of Inspiring Health, we’re talking about WellSpan’s efforts to ensure every community member in South Central Pennsylvania has equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine, otherwise known as the shot of hope.
Featuring:
Ann Kunkel, RN, BSN | Roxanna Gapstur PhD, RN
Ann Kunkel, RN, BSN is Vice President of Community Health and Engagement. Transcription:
Roxanna Gapstur PhD, RN (Host): In this episode of Inspiring Health, we're talking about WellSpan's efforts to ensure every community member in Southcentral Pennsylvania has equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine, otherwise known as the Shot of Hope. Today, we'll talk about our COVID-19 vaccination progress to date, what we've learned about vaccine hesitancy and distribution barriers through community conversations. And lastly, the variety of strategies we've designed to reach even more people with vaccine. Joining me today is Ann Kunkel Vice-President of Community Health and Engagement. She's leading our efforts to bring vaccine to areas where there's a concentration of at-risk persons. Welcome Ann, thank you for being here.
Ann Kunkel, RN, BSN (Guest): Thank you, Roxanna. I'm so excited to be here.
Host: Well, here we are Ann, more than a year into our COVID response and nearing the 150 thousandth dose of COVID 19 vaccine, I'm feeling optimistic. What about you? How are you doing? I know you've been working in our vaccination pods in addition to your everyday role and responsibilities. What has that experience been like?
Ann: Well, it's been very humbling Roxanna, I have to say. It's such a privilege to be able to give individuals their vaccine. And I too, am extremely optimistic and so proud of the work we've been doing in this area across our organization to prepare and help our communities advance through this ravaging disease and this pandemic. It's been wonderful to be able to see individuals come into our pod sites and just be so excited about the ability to get their vaccine. It's been wonderful to be able to give vaccine to people who I admire and who I look up to being able to give you your vaccine and some others in the community, and then being able to take care of those that are just so vulnerable and at risk and some of the strategies we've come up with to really help them, in this process has just been, just, it makes my day. I typically work in the pods on Fridays, Friday nights, and it's just been such a wonderful date night for me, to be able to spend that time in our community.
Host: Oh, that's great, Ann and I really appreciated getting my vaccine as you know, and you're one of our many Hope Squad members as well, who are helping us ensure that the vaccine gets distributed to all of our community members. We're currently operating 22 vaccination sites in our hospitals and medical practices. And we've also announced plans to expand our reach over the next few weeks, which we'll get to in a minute. Our listeners might also be interested to know that as of this discussion, almost 60% of our employees have received one or both doses of the vaccine. And we're just shy of 85% of our providers being vaccinated.
But we know some of our employees are still hesitant to get the vaccine and based on our indicators, three of our four job classes are lagging, including those classified as administrative at around 60%, nursing at around 58% and clinical support around 46% and across racial demographics there are opportunities to reach more members of our Hispanic and African-American communities, just 45% of both those employee groups have been vaccinated to date.
Ann: The hesitancy that you describe among our employees is very similar to that, that we're experiencing in our communities, Roxanna. So, we've been hosting about 16 conversations with our community leaders across the organization, across the communities, talking about vaccine hesitancy and the barriers. Those sessions have been really focused on listening to what our community members have to say. And in fact involved clinical and physician leaders who participate in the sessions and in our sessions with our Latino community, we even hosted them in Spanish, the full session. And we're looking to identify those themes, in terms of what is bringing vaccine hesitancy. And in particular, what we've identified, are three key themes, trust, fear, and barriers. And so our strategies have been aimed at mitigating these issues.
Host: Yeah. Ann, these community conversations are just so important to developing solutions, to reach every person who wants to have the vaccine. And I was delighted to participate in the mobile team that provided vaccines on site with one of our nonprofit partners in New York City.
Ann: Yes, our mobile teams, one of our strategies to really bring a vaccine to the most vulnerable in our community. We're supported by community partners on this, as you mentioned, as well as our paramedics across the community, provide some of that backbone safety support as we go out and give vaccine in the community. We partner with our community agencies to help identify those at highest risk for vaccine, and then work on figuring out the logistics of bringing the vaccine in a mobile unit way, across the communities. And in addition to that, we've asked our community partners to help us to identify within their clientele, the highest risk individuals that we can do an outreach to and help to mitigate some of the barriers like transportation, to get people to our vaccine sites. In fact, this week as we launched some of that work in the Adams County area, we've been working with the area Agency on Aging and Manos Unidas there to identify individuals in that higher risk classification. So, that's been an area that's been really helpful to us, our ability to engage and partner with community agencies to really focus in on those most at risk.
Host: Yeah, I'm so proud of you and the members of your team, Ann for helping our friends and neighbors overcome barriers to receiving the vaccine. Each week, we continue to increase vaccines for at-risk populations. It's just an excellent example of how we're demonstrating our vision to being a trusted partner.
One of the other approaches we've taken to vaccine distribution is through partnerships with five counties to open larger COVID-19 sites. We've finalized agreements for locations in Adams, York, and Lebanon counties, in addition to the Park City Mall Complex location in Lancaster County, a partnership that's with Penn Medicine, Penn State Health, and UPMC.
And perhaps by the time our team members are hearing this episode in early April, we will have announced additional partnerships that are currently in development. So, and we know the mobile team and the larger vaccination sites are key to expanding access. Is there anything else you see on the horizon when it comes to access and distribution?
Ann: One of the areas that I'm very excited about is, this year we'll be doing our community health needs assessment. And we're really looking at trying to understand how COVID has impacted our community members and how it's changed things in the community, particularly in the areas of advancing food and housing insecurity and how we can better serve our Latino population, overall. That's some key learning that we've had from our COVID work. And we hope to also focus on identifying how we can improve life expectancy. One of the things that COVID has really demonstrated, in its effect and impact across our communities and across the nation has been its impact on life expectancy. It has reduced it by an average of a year in just one year's time. And so that's an area that I see is really a True North Goal for our communities to be able to impact that. Because when you consider what life expectancy is, it's everything from the social security, that we have in our communities, gun violence, addressing poverty, housing, food, and it's our ability to really address health outcomes, within health disparities, in our communities as well.
Host: That's really exciting work Ann. Thank you for leading these efforts. And thanks for being with me today. I know you share deeply in our vision of being a trusted partner, and I'm eager to have you back again, to explore other focal points with social determinants of health.
Ann: Thank you for having me Roxanna and I really appreciate the work we've done and your leadership. You bring a burning passion around health equity, and it's just something I'm very grateful for.
Host: Oh, thanks, Ann. Appreciate that. That's all the time we have for today. We hope you'll join us again for the next episode of Inspiring Health.
Roxanna Gapstur PhD, RN (Host): In this episode of Inspiring Health, we're talking about WellSpan's efforts to ensure every community member in Southcentral Pennsylvania has equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine, otherwise known as the Shot of Hope. Today, we'll talk about our COVID-19 vaccination progress to date, what we've learned about vaccine hesitancy and distribution barriers through community conversations. And lastly, the variety of strategies we've designed to reach even more people with vaccine. Joining me today is Ann Kunkel Vice-President of Community Health and Engagement. She's leading our efforts to bring vaccine to areas where there's a concentration of at-risk persons. Welcome Ann, thank you for being here.
Ann Kunkel, RN, BSN (Guest): Thank you, Roxanna. I'm so excited to be here.
Host: Well, here we are Ann, more than a year into our COVID response and nearing the 150 thousandth dose of COVID 19 vaccine, I'm feeling optimistic. What about you? How are you doing? I know you've been working in our vaccination pods in addition to your everyday role and responsibilities. What has that experience been like?
Ann: Well, it's been very humbling Roxanna, I have to say. It's such a privilege to be able to give individuals their vaccine. And I too, am extremely optimistic and so proud of the work we've been doing in this area across our organization to prepare and help our communities advance through this ravaging disease and this pandemic. It's been wonderful to be able to see individuals come into our pod sites and just be so excited about the ability to get their vaccine. It's been wonderful to be able to give vaccine to people who I admire and who I look up to being able to give you your vaccine and some others in the community, and then being able to take care of those that are just so vulnerable and at risk and some of the strategies we've come up with to really help them, in this process has just been, just, it makes my day. I typically work in the pods on Fridays, Friday nights, and it's just been such a wonderful date night for me, to be able to spend that time in our community.
Host: Oh, that's great, Ann and I really appreciated getting my vaccine as you know, and you're one of our many Hope Squad members as well, who are helping us ensure that the vaccine gets distributed to all of our community members. We're currently operating 22 vaccination sites in our hospitals and medical practices. And we've also announced plans to expand our reach over the next few weeks, which we'll get to in a minute. Our listeners might also be interested to know that as of this discussion, almost 60% of our employees have received one or both doses of the vaccine. And we're just shy of 85% of our providers being vaccinated.
But we know some of our employees are still hesitant to get the vaccine and based on our indicators, three of our four job classes are lagging, including those classified as administrative at around 60%, nursing at around 58% and clinical support around 46% and across racial demographics there are opportunities to reach more members of our Hispanic and African-American communities, just 45% of both those employee groups have been vaccinated to date.
Ann: The hesitancy that you describe among our employees is very similar to that, that we're experiencing in our communities, Roxanna. So, we've been hosting about 16 conversations with our community leaders across the organization, across the communities, talking about vaccine hesitancy and the barriers. Those sessions have been really focused on listening to what our community members have to say. And in fact involved clinical and physician leaders who participate in the sessions and in our sessions with our Latino community, we even hosted them in Spanish, the full session. And we're looking to identify those themes, in terms of what is bringing vaccine hesitancy. And in particular, what we've identified, are three key themes, trust, fear, and barriers. And so our strategies have been aimed at mitigating these issues.
Host: Yeah. Ann, these community conversations are just so important to developing solutions, to reach every person who wants to have the vaccine. And I was delighted to participate in the mobile team that provided vaccines on site with one of our nonprofit partners in New York City.
Ann: Yes, our mobile teams, one of our strategies to really bring a vaccine to the most vulnerable in our community. We're supported by community partners on this, as you mentioned, as well as our paramedics across the community, provide some of that backbone safety support as we go out and give vaccine in the community. We partner with our community agencies to help identify those at highest risk for vaccine, and then work on figuring out the logistics of bringing the vaccine in a mobile unit way, across the communities. And in addition to that, we've asked our community partners to help us to identify within their clientele, the highest risk individuals that we can do an outreach to and help to mitigate some of the barriers like transportation, to get people to our vaccine sites. In fact, this week as we launched some of that work in the Adams County area, we've been working with the area Agency on Aging and Manos Unidas there to identify individuals in that higher risk classification. So, that's been an area that's been really helpful to us, our ability to engage and partner with community agencies to really focus in on those most at risk.
Host: Yeah, I'm so proud of you and the members of your team, Ann for helping our friends and neighbors overcome barriers to receiving the vaccine. Each week, we continue to increase vaccines for at-risk populations. It's just an excellent example of how we're demonstrating our vision to being a trusted partner.
One of the other approaches we've taken to vaccine distribution is through partnerships with five counties to open larger COVID-19 sites. We've finalized agreements for locations in Adams, York, and Lebanon counties, in addition to the Park City Mall Complex location in Lancaster County, a partnership that's with Penn Medicine, Penn State Health, and UPMC.
And perhaps by the time our team members are hearing this episode in early April, we will have announced additional partnerships that are currently in development. So, and we know the mobile team and the larger vaccination sites are key to expanding access. Is there anything else you see on the horizon when it comes to access and distribution?
Ann: One of the areas that I'm very excited about is, this year we'll be doing our community health needs assessment. And we're really looking at trying to understand how COVID has impacted our community members and how it's changed things in the community, particularly in the areas of advancing food and housing insecurity and how we can better serve our Latino population, overall. That's some key learning that we've had from our COVID work. And we hope to also focus on identifying how we can improve life expectancy. One of the things that COVID has really demonstrated, in its effect and impact across our communities and across the nation has been its impact on life expectancy. It has reduced it by an average of a year in just one year's time. And so that's an area that I see is really a True North Goal for our communities to be able to impact that. Because when you consider what life expectancy is, it's everything from the social security, that we have in our communities, gun violence, addressing poverty, housing, food, and it's our ability to really address health outcomes, within health disparities, in our communities as well.
Host: That's really exciting work Ann. Thank you for leading these efforts. And thanks for being with me today. I know you share deeply in our vision of being a trusted partner, and I'm eager to have you back again, to explore other focal points with social determinants of health.
Ann: Thank you for having me Roxanna and I really appreciate the work we've done and your leadership. You bring a burning passion around health equity, and it's just something I'm very grateful for.
Host: Oh, thanks, Ann. Appreciate that. That's all the time we have for today. We hope you'll join us again for the next episode of Inspiring Health.