Overview
The aged and disability care sectors are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. In January 2021, the Australian Commonwealth, represented by its Department of Health, invited International SOS, along with other medical providers, to administer COVID-19 vaccines to residents in aged care facilities. Subsequently, the Commonwealth invited us to extend our services to the staff of these facilities and to the disability sector.
Problem
The Australian Government needed to vaccinate the vulnerable aged care and disability sectors against COVID-19 in a short period of time. They needed the assistance of private health care providers such as International SOS to do this.
Solution
International SOS implemented a flexible service delivery model, organising both mobile vaccination teams to be sent to our client’s facilities and temporary vaccination hubs. Our mobile vaccination teams primarily serviced the residents of aged care and disability facilities, while we vaccinated staff at our hubs. Four team members including two clinicians, a first aid nurse, and a receptionist vaccinated around 100 people per day. We scaled the size of our teams to meet client demand. Importantly, we established and maintained rigorous protocols for infection prevention and control. Our staff were diligent in the use of PPE and we put in place protocols for responding to any patients who would test positive for coronavirus or were a close contact of another positive case.
Impact
Our services helped ensure operational readiness and successful delivery of this historically important mass vaccination programme: we delivered over 50,000 vaccines for the aged/disability sectors across 250 different locations, often in remote areas under special conditions. Our cold chain protocols protected precious vaccine supplies meaning we did not experience any cold chain breaches and exceeded all KPIs around wastage. Furthermore, we met and often succeeded the KPIs set by the Department of Health.