Setting up the Largest Mass Vaccination Center in Europe: The One-Physician One-Nurse Protocol

Abstract

To manage mass vaccination without impacting medical resources dedicated to care, we proposed a new model of Mass Vaccination Centers (MVC) functioning with minimum attending staffing requirements. The MVC was under the supervision of one medical coordinator, one nurse coordinator, and one operational coordinator. Students provided much of the other clinical support. Healthcare students were involved in medical and pharmaceutical tasks, while non-health students performed administrative and logistical tasks. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study to describe data concerning the vaccinated population within the MVC and the number and type of vaccines used. A patient satisfaction questionnaire was collected to determine patient perception of the vaccination experience. From 28 March to 20 October 2021, 501,714 vaccines were administered at the MVC. A mean rate of 2951 ± 1804 doses were injected per day with a staff of 180 ± 95 persons working every day. At peak, 10,095 injections were given in one day. The average time spent in the MVC was 43.2 ± 15 min (time measured between entry and exit of the structure). The average time to be vaccinated was 26 ± 13 min. In total, 4712 patients (1%) responded to the satisfaction survey. The overall satisfaction with the organization of the vaccination was 10 (9–10) out of 10. By using one attending physician and one nurse to supervise a staff of trained students, the MVC of Toulouse optimized staffing to be among the most efficient vaccination centers in Europe.

Setting up and managing the largest COVID-19 mass vaccination center in Lombardy, Italy

“…Across the globe, MVCs responded adequately to the COVID-19 public health emergency (1,8,18,23) by providing infrastructure and space at large public venues converted into high-throughput vaccination sites. MVCs supported campaigns for population-wide vaccination (14,(24)(25)(26). User flow design was based on previous queueing process models of areas for user registration, evaluation, vaccination, and observation (12,14,(16)(17)(18).…”

“…MVCs supported campaigns for population-wide vaccination (14,(24)(25)(26). User flow design was based on previous queueing process models of areas for user registration, evaluation, vaccination, and observation (12,14,(16)(17)(18). The modular layout allowed for sector deployment according to daily user flow rate and for flexible capacity utilization (12,14,19).…”

“…The site is served by surface and underground public transport, making it easy to reach from other parts of Milan or the metropolitan area. The center measures 15,500 square meters in floor area, which was subdivided into stations in linear sequence along which users advanced (check-in, evaluation, vaccine administration, observation), similar to the pathway layout of other large-scale vaccination centers in Italy and around the world (1,12,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). The center was divided into two identical areas (A and B), each with its own entrance.…”

The Role of Vaccination Centers in a National Mass Immunization Campaign—Policymaker Insights from the German COVID-19 Pandemic Vaccine Roll-Out

“…However, sound scientific research into the role and use of vaccination centers remains limited. Existing studies mostly focus on overviews of different vaccination strategies [4,[7][8][9][10], individual operational aspects (e.g., process flows [11], the placement of structures [12,13]) or overall operational lessons learned, mostly drawing on single-site case studies, with a less stringent methodology [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. No retrospective, comprehensive evaluations of the role and use of vaccination centers at the highest level of national strategic coordination have been conducted yet.…”