💉🏒A mass vaccination model called the "hockey hub" allows clinics to administer shots more efficiently — and it all started with one Ontario doctor and a few stuffed animals on Christmas Eve. 🧸🎄 [1/11] 
https://twitter.com/TheAgenda/status/1410265585368416262
That night, @GBPublicHealth's MoH Dr. Ian Arra lined up his daughter's stuffies to simulate getting consent and injecting a vaccine within 30 seconds. It turned out he could do it and that was the proof of concept Arra needed to pitch the hockey hub. [2/11]
The model, named for the arenas it works well in, involves lining up patients and directing staff and shots to them, rather than the other way around. This reduces time spent moving and resources needed to run a clinic. Grey Bruce adopted it at three arenas in February. [3/11]
Registrants are directed to rows of cubicles and sit down in one. They get their vaccine from a nurse. A "runner" (who may be a volunteer) logs their consent and supports the nurse. Those two are set up at a cart on wheels and move to the next person in the line. [4/11]
Arra says one vaccinator can administer about 70 jabs per hour, as opposed to six to 10 in the traditional model. It's also less expensive, at $6,000 per 1,000 shots, as opposed to $26,000 per 1,000 doses in the traditional model. (More here: bit.ly/2SFLAKU) [5/11]
.@NorfolkEMS chief Sarah Page, who leads her area’s vaccine rollout, says the hockey-hub model has made clinics far more efficient. After her team implemented it at a Cayuga arena, the clinic there went from issuing 450 shots in an eight-hour shift to as many as 1,500. [6/11]
The model increased capacity to the point that people as far away as Toronto were booking appointments in Cayuga earlier this month. (thespec.com/news/hamilton-…)
“For a small county, this has allowed us to have a much greater output than we ever imagined,” Page says. [7/11]
“For a small county, this has allowed us to have a much greater output than we ever imagined,” Page says. [7/11]
Challenges in managing hockey hubs include organizing traffic and parking, Arra says. "If you're going to bring 5,000 people within 10 hours, that’s where the expertise of the police services is instrumental." Health-care providers also need enough vaccines to justify it. [8/11]
Not every health unit is on board, however: for example, in an emailed statement, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, @mustafahirji, says his team won't be adopting it, in part because of the need to retrain staff and change processes midstream. [9/11]
He adds that his health unit didn’t want to download functions normally performed by clinicians — such as educating patients about vaccines — onto volunteers. That said, Hirji notes his team does want to observe the system with an eye to incorporating it one day. [10/11]
Arra and Page both feel optimistic about the vaccine rollouts in their regions. “you can see the benefit at the end of the day, that these people are excited about getting the vaccine and protecting themselves and their families,” Arra says. [11/11]
tvo.org/article/how-ho…
tvo.org/article/how-ho…
I’ll be on @TheAgenda around 8 tonight, discussing the hockey hub with @JeyanTVO!
Thanks to @carrletta for producing.
Thanks to @carrletta for producing.
https://twitter.com/theagenda/status/1411014304430641156
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