California health organizations to stage mass vaccination ‘hubs’

The sites will expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, with the goal of accelerating vaccination, especially among the state’s most vulnerable populations.

Health organizations in California are joining together in an unprecedented effort to vaccinate their members and the general public using a network of COVID-19 mass vaccination hubs throughout the state.

The consortium, initiated by Kaiser Permanente, includes Adventist Health, the California Medical Association, Dignity Health, and Futuro Health. California Primary Care Association will also be working with the consortium to ensure broad equitable access to the sites through its member federally qualified community health centers. In addition, the American Red Cross has provided its expertise on mass site planning.

The first two vaccination hubs are expected to open at Cal Poly Pomona and Moscone Center in San Francisco on February 5. Establishment of the hubs is aimed at accelerating vaccination of vulnerable individuals as prioritized by the California Department of Public Health, especially those 75 years and older.

Starting Thursday, Feb. 4, available appointments at the consortium’s vaccination hubs can be scheduled at California’s MyTurn vaccine scheduling website myturn.ca.gov

The hubs will offer vaccinations by appointment only, seven days a week, as long as supply is available. Each site will start on Friday at a lower capacity, ramping up volume as site operations are refined over the weekend, and continuing to increase next week. Each site will have the capacity of administering up to 10,000 doses per day, depending on supply. The success of these hubs will be highly dependent on the available supply of vaccine.

Kaiser Permanente members and patients who use other providers in the consortium can seek vaccination appointments at the hubs, along with the general public. Kaiser Permanente members can also continue getting vaccinated as part of the organization’s direct outreach. Members will be notified when an appointment is available for them at a Kaiser Permanente facility, with the current focus on outreach to people 75 and over, and then on to 65-and-over as vaccine supply allows.

The goal for this unique collaboration among a consortium of health organizations and the State of California is to contribute to the broader solution for vaccine access, eventually creating a network of hubs around the state. Future locations will be chosen to maximize access, especially for communities with rural populations and those who have historically experienced lower rates of vaccination. No one organization could achieve this scale on its own.

“We want to acknowledge and thank the state for making additional vaccine available, which has made it possible to open this site for the community and our members. We are also grateful to the state for providing additional vaccine to allow us to increase our appointments for our members in our medical centers,” said Greg Adams, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. “We have helped form this consortium because our respective organizations recognize that we need to harness our collective efforts to make immediate and meaningful progress toward mass vaccination.”

“We’ve experienced the tremendous power of collaboration throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Scott Reiner, CEO of Adventist Health. “Adventist Health is proud to continue that collaboration through this effort to provide this much-needed vaccine to communities across California, especially our most vulnerable, in alignment with our mission of living God’s love.”

“Our health care teams are diligently working to get as many ‘shots-in-arms’ as possible for those most at risk,” said Daryn Kumar, president and CEO of Dignity Health’s Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center. “Despite the extra demands our caregivers have faced over the past year, they are once again responding with enthusiasm to help pave our community’s way out of this historic emergency.”

“Futuro Health is pleased to mobilize students, faculty, and alumni of allied health and nursing programs in support of this effort,” said Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health, a non-profit organization founded by Kaiser Permanente and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West to address the shortage in the allied health workforce. “This mass vaccination creates opportunity for students to help out and engage in direct patient care, gaining clinical hours required for licensure which has been so difficult to obtain during the pandemic. We need to ensure we have the next generation of workers to deliver care.”

Pictured above: Andrew Jahn, Care Division president for Adventist Health, at the Moscone Center vaccination hub.