Community Collaboration to Implement a Vaccination Clinic in Rural Areas

Primary care has delivered more vaccinations to people in the US than any other healthcare organization or entity. Patients seek vaccine advice from their primary care clinician, and this is no different for the COVID-19 vaccine. While mass COVID-19 vaccination sites are a critical piece of the greater public health strategy to immunize our communities, reaching older, underserved, and vaccine adverse communities will require engaging primary care and leveraging the trusting relationships practices establish with communities. Oregon Health & Science University Family Medicine Health Center, Scappoose, OR, collaborated with our rural county health department to establish a mass vaccination site at our clinic building. Based on our experience, we also developed a toolkit for decision-makers and implementers of vaccine clinics, designed to be a “vaccination clinic in a box,” that could be replicated in, and tailored to, many types of settings.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167008/1/Annals_COVID Vaccine Toolkit_FINAL DRAFT_rev for online pub_3.25.21_PP.pdfDescription of Annals_COVID Vaccine Toolkit_FINAL DRAFT_rev for online pub_3.25.21_PP.pdf : Main ArticleSEL

Financing the Fourth Year: Experiences of Required 4-Year Family Medicine Residency Programs

Abstract: The optimal length of family medicine training has been debated since the specialty’s inception. Currently there are four residency programs in the United States that require 4 years of training for all residents through participation in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Length of Training Pilot. Financing the additional year of training has been perceived as a barrier to broader dissemination of this educational innovation. Utilizing varied approaches, the family medicine residency programs at Middlesex Health, Greater Lawrence Health Center, Oregon Health and Science University, and MidMichigan Medical Center all demonstrated successful implementation of a required 4-year curricular model. Total resident complement increased in all programs, and the number of residents per class increased in half of the programs. All programs maintained or improved their contribution margins to their sponsoring institutions through additional revenue generation from sources including endowment funding, family medicine center professional fees, institutional collaborations, and Health Resources and Services Administration Teaching Health Center funding. Operating expense per resident remained stable or decreased. These findings demonstrate that extension of training in family medicine to 4 years is financially feasible, and can be funded through a variety of models.</jats:p