Strategies in Emergency Department-based COVID-19 Vaccination
Abstract
COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool in protecting patients and combating the pandemic. This report describes an emergency department (ED)-based initiative for vaccinating underserved patients against COVID-19 at a public academic hospital. A key challenge identified in ED COVID-19 vaccination was time constraints among emergency clinicians, which can be addressed through attention to workflow and delegation of counseling discussions within care teams of trainee and supervising clinicians. As patient receptivity to vaccination varies, strategies to promote ED-based vaccination include emergency clinicians sharing personal experiences of COVID-19 with patients and having multiple care team members recommend vaccination to an unvaccinated patient during an ED visit. Racial, ethnic, and gender diversity within a care team may also improve vaccine acceptance among racial/ethnic minorities. As safety nets of the larger United States healthcare system, EDs can play a significant role in primary prevention of COVID-19, and ED-based vaccination may be an effective strategy that can be adopted more widely for other infectious diseases.