Public Health’s work to 'knock down silos' during COVID-19 featured
A case study of an innovative collaboration between Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public Health and Fairview Health Services on the COVID-19 response has been published in the August 2024 issue of NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery.
Knocking Down Public Health and Health Care Silos: An Innovative Covid-19 Health Equity Response recounts the successful partnership to ensure that underserved populations had equitable access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Public Health, Fairview, the local community and faith-based partners they worked with, recognized the need for equitable, low-barrier COVID-19 testing and vaccinations that were accessible, free, available within a trusted space and with appropriate language and cultural considerations.
To address long-standing health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic, this collaboration from 2020 to 2023:
- Stood up 38 community mass-testing clinics and organized 210 COVID-19 vaccination clinics across 71 diverse community-based sites.
- Conducted 18,059 COVID-19 tests.
- Administered 16,367 COVID-19 vaccinations
The article was co-authored by staff from Public Health's Emergency Response and Preparedness division and Fairview Health Services. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery is a journal of the NEJM Group, a division of the Massachusetts Medical Society whose other publications include the New England Journal of Medicine.