Decreasing Influenza Vaccination Disparity Rates by Utilization of Hotspot Deployments of a Mobile Health Vehicle

Abstract

Practice Problem: Influenza vaccination for Black/African American patients is historically lower than White patients across all healthcare organizations (Quinn, 2018). In the organization’s 2022 performance, only 13.98% of Black/African American patients ages 19 and older were vaccinated compared to 27.81% of White/Caucasian patients. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was for Black/African American patients ages 19 and older receiving care from primary care clinics in Southeast San Diego (P), what is the impact of adding access to influenza vaccinations through hotspot-driven MHV deployments (I) compared to usual vaccination delivery in the medical office building (MOB) (C) on influenza vaccine disparity rates (O) in 8 weeks (T)? Evidence: Gaining rapport and trust from the patients, engaging the community, and improving access to care aided in the increased uptake of vaccinations for patients. Intervention: Hot spot-driven deployments of the organization’s mobile health vehicle was leveraged to improve Black/African American patient influenza vaccination rates. Outcome: The overall disparity rate between Black/African American and White/Caucasian patients in the target zip codes decreased in 2023. The successful vaccination percentage increased for the 91977-zip code and the MHV. Conclusion: The project’s practice change plan assisted a large Southern California healthcare organization improve influenza vaccination rates by leveraging the MHV’s hotspot-driven deployments. Despite the lack of statistical significance, the project increased the percentage of patients receiving their vaccinations from the MHV and established a new community partnership for vaccination access.