Healthcare Leadership Council Releases Compilation of Strategies, Practices to Strengthen Vaccine Acceptance

WASHINGTON – The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), an alliance of leading companies from all sectors of American healthcare, has published a “playbook” containing lessons learned and best practices from throughout the country on how to increase the number of Americans receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, with a special emphasis on strategies to address specific populations that have demonstrated high levels of vaccine resistance.

HLC president Mary R. Grealy said the publication, “COVID-19 Vaccination Strategies: Lessons from U.S. Healthcare Leaders” is being shared with the Biden Administration, members of Congress, and healthcare and community organizations.

The publication is divided into two sections. The first provides detailed descriptions of efforts by hospitals, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, healthcare information technology firms, pharmacies, clinical laboratories and other healthcare companies to encourage and enable vaccinations. Information is provided on successes in building trust in vaccines, collecting and leveraging data, providing support for healthcare providers, the process of getting shots into arms, and the work done by companies to get their own employees vaccinated.

Then, HLC utilized its regional directors, stationed throughout the country, to engage with community leaders in multiple states in an effort to better understand the reasons for vaccine reluctance in certain populations. Those populations included young Americans between the ages of 18 and 30, the African-American faith community, the Hispanic community, low-income American Indian populations, essential workers not in the healthcare sphere, and white evangelical conservatives.

The outreach conducted by HLC’s regional teams resulted in insights on how to build trust in vaccines with these populations and identified effective messengers, messages, and venues for vaccine administration.

The HLC publication also observes that these lessons and best practices should be applied to vaccination efforts beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that there have been significant declines in measles vaccinations for young children and HPV vaccinations for adolescents.

The Healthcare Leadership Council is a coalition of chief executives of the nation’s leading health care companies and organizations. Follow us on Twitter at @HealthInFocus

 

For Immediate Release
September 30, 2021
Contact: Kelly Fernandez 202-449-3452