How Chester County Streamlined Their COVID-19 Vaccinations with VaxCare

Like every county in America, the Chester County Health Department had never run an immunization effort at the scale required for the COVID-19 vaccine. With over half a million residents in its community, rolling out a new vaccine to halt the once-in-a-century pandemic required overcoming a range of technological, logistical, and workforce challenges.

Technology that Reduces Paperwork, Staff Time

As a VaxCare partner since 2017, the Health Department understood the benefits of our platform—most notably refrigerators stocked with no-cost vaccines, and user-friendly technology tools that dramatically reduce staff time on recording, billing, inventory management, and other paperwork.

For flu season, the Health Department was also able to replace roster billing of flu vaccines for patients with Medicaid Part B with real-time billing. Here again, it saw a reduction of workflow burdens on staff, as well as the added bonus of more revenue to support its immunization program.

Simplified Data Entry, Integration with the State IIS

When COVID-19 vaccines became available, the Health Department quickly launched a clinic at the local university with the aim of administering thousands of shots each day—a number that far exceeded the volumes of its flu clinics.

The clinic started small due to federal vaccine shortages, but by April 2021, it had added multiple locations. The goal was to fully vaccinate over 50,000 residents, equivalent to 45% of all vaccinations for the county.

We had six to eight members of our staff doing data entry all day, every day… With VaxCare, we were able to reallocate all that personnel elsewhere, which helped us to move faster and reach more people.

The adoption of VaxCare’s COVID-19 Assist—which, among other features, automates reporting to the state vaccine registry (PA-SIIS)—was key in allowing to the Health Department to rapidly scale their immunization clinics. In addition to automating reporting to the registry, VaxCare’s ease of use allowed nursing staff to onboard new nurses and move administrative staff from station to station quickly and efficiently.

No More Clipboards or Forms

At its COVID-19 clinics, the Health Department used VaxCare’s Hub and the Mobile Hub (released for flu season 2020) in tandem. The Mobile Hub was used at check-in to capture patient identification and insurance with a few clicks of the Mobile Hub’s camera. The vaccination stations were supported by the stationary Hub, confirming the correct recipient and automatically sending their information to the state immunization registry.

The Results

Chester Country’s COVID-19 vaccine clinics were an exhausting undertaking, but they also represented an exhilarating moment of hope and achievement. As of late spring 2021, Chester County ranked as the most vaccinated county in the Commonwealth, thanks in no small part to the Health Department’s contribution of fully vaccinating over 62,000 people—a feat that seemed beyond reach just a few months ago. The team at VaxCare is thrilled to have played a part in this tremendous effort.

Download the Chester County COVID-19 Case Study PDF here.