Heart of West Michigan United Ways Partnering with the Kent County Health Department to Prevent the H 1 N 1 Virus Presented by Robert McKown Heart of West Michigan United Way May 25, 2010

ROLE Starting November 3, 2009, United Ways was utilized as the answering point for residents of Kent County to schedule an appointment for the H 1 N 1 flu vaccine provided by the Kent County Health Department. Between November 3 and November 9, United Ways responded to 7,434 telephone inquiries about the flu clinics and scheduled over 14,000 people for appointments at the participating clinics. This call volume was beyond the capacity of the regular team. The team worked additional hours, the Health Department provided several staff during peak hours, and our overnight provider scheduled their staff additional hours to assist. 18 United Way staff set aside their usual responsibilities to assist with these calls.

BACK STORY 600,000+ Population of Kent County Media had reported several H 1 N 1 related deaths, including a 32 year old male with no underlying health problems. The Kent County Health Department wanted to provide the vaccines quickly and efficiently as soon as a large supply of the vaccine became available. The Kent County Health Dept considered using a for-profit call center but their staff encouraged approaching UWs because of the easy-to-remember phone number, existing relationships and history…UWs previously screened dead bird reports for West Nile disease testing. Our resource database manager and one of the I&R Specialist were on vacation the week of November 3.

KEY ELEMENTS Scheduling was not just scheduling Detailed message regarding the priority groups, the clinic times and location Screened inquirers for priority groups Scheduled appointments using online scheduling software. Provided basic information regarding H 1 N 1, the vaccine and referred inquirers who needed medical information to their primary care physician or Health Department nurse.

AFTER NOVEMBER 9TH The Health Department announced the clinics were full and that additional supplies were expected in early December. The greeting included message that the appointments were filled and to expect more information in early December. Calls immediately decreased sharply. Early December – the Health Department was ready for the second round of clinics but UW did not have the capacity to pull the other departments away from their work. The Health Department used the 2-1-1infrastructure and brought in temporary staff to respond to the calls. Late December, the call numbers had stabilized and agreed to handle the scheduling.

11,295… the number of H 1 N 1 inquiries through April 30, 2010

DATA COLLECTION Scheduling software Volume prohibited recording in our I&R software. Used call accounting reports to identify the numbers of H 1 N 1 inquiries.

REPORTING Reporting to the Health Department was not necessary as they got the data they needed from the scheduling program. Monthly reports to Michigan included: Number of flu vaccine sites listed Number of callers requesting H 1 N 1 information Number of referrals for seasonal vaccine, H 1 N 1 vaccine or flu information Unmet request data Top three referrals sources

REPORTING CONTINUED

PROJECT FUNDING The Health Department compensation evolved as HWMUWs role and costs evolved: Initial agreement was based on $1 per scheduled appointment ($15,000) Emergency T-1 line, phone and headsets All additional costs including use of space, planning, infrastructure, telephone toll charges, management, staff development, marketing and communications.

LESSONS LEARNED Heart of West Michigan United Ways leadership supported our effort. Without, this would have been a disaster. Call routing system had the capacity to route and queue up the increased volume however the T-1 line was not sufficient to handle all of the traffic. IT made adjustments to open up the capacity as much as possible. AT&T – could install and provide an emergency T-1 line – 3 week process. H1N1 dominated the routing system