473 - An Equitable Approach to Immunizing Children - Mobile Medical Program and School Services Partnership

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in the number of children receiving routine pediatric primary care services, including immunizations. According to the CDC only 78% of kindergarteners in the District of Columbia received 2 doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines between 2020-21. This decline placed children at risk for outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases as they prepared to return to in person learning. In the summer of 2022, legislation passed to enforce immunization compliance for students attending DC public schools.  The Children’s National Mobile Medical Program (MMP), which provided services to communities throughout the pandemic, partnered with the Children’s School Services (CSS) team to provide a summer series of weekend vaccine “block parties” to help immunize students.

The MMP has served the community for over 20 years including during times of public health crisis.  The CSS program is part of a public-private partnership with the District of Columbia’s Department of Health which places school nurses in DC.  This initiative leveraged CSS access to data to identify MMP deployment.  This was part of a multi-pronged city wide effort.

Objective:

      1.  Describe an equitable approach to identifying schools/locations to deploy the MMP.
2.  Describe workflows for facilitating community vaccine events.
3.  Highlight staff motivations for participating in the community initiative.
4.  Review lessons learned.

Design/Methods:

Retrospective chart review was used to identify the number of patients scheduled, the number presenting for each event, immunization distribution and zip code data.

A survey was made available for families to provide feedback about each event.  A weekly staff survey was also distributed to obtain feedback for improving workflows.

Results:

The MMP and CSS teams hosted 8 weekend events.  A total of 1,340 patients were pre-registered or walked-up for an event, 729 (54%) patients presented for service and 614 received vaccines (45.8% of those pre-registered/walk ups).  A total of 1416 individual vaccines were administered, including 288 COVID vaccines.  Patients primarily lived in DC's wards 7 and 8.  Staff motivations included a desire to serve, support and help the community.

Conclusion(s):

Leveraging community partnerships is a critical step in bridging gaps in care during a public health crisis.  In addition to the primary care medical home, schools are a trusted source for parents and families and may be able to leverage data to help target outreach.  The partnership between the MMP and CSS has proven beneficial and promises to inform ongoing models of care.