COVID-19 vaccines prevented nearly 140,000 deaths in the U.S.

Second-largest AO cuts back on some onsite visits as COVID-19 patient surge continues.

The 50 states and Washington, D.C., experienced an average of five fewer deaths from COVID-19 per 10,000 adult residents as a result of early vaccination efforts through May 9, according to the study. Adjusting for population size, New York saw the largest estimated reduction, with 11.7 fewer COVID-19 deaths per 10,000 adult residents. The study, published online by the journal Health Affairs, is one of the first to assess the impacts of state-level vaccination campaigns to address the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from RAND, a nonprofit research organization that, along with Indiana University researchers, conducted the study.

As the president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Kedar Mate, MD, is the leader of one of the top healthcare reform organizations in the world. IHI was founded in 1991. The nonprofit organization has been involved in a range of healthcare improvement initiatives, including patient and healthcare workforce safety, elder care, health equity, maternal and infant health, quality, and value-based care. In addition to working with U.S. healthcare organizations, IHI has worked on projects around the world, including Canada, England, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Latin America, New Zealand, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and the Middle East. Mate received a degree in American history from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The nation is still working to get a majority of the population vaccinated against COVID-19 as coronavirus variants create patient surges in many states. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are being asked to step up yet again to provide more shots in arms.

Often that’s not as easy as it might seem. Outsiders often don’t understand the precautions that healthcare organizations must take, both with the fragility of the vaccines and in protecting their workers and patients from potential exposure to the airborne threat.

Even testing for COVID-19 can be a challenge. Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, North Carolina, learned how difficult it was to manage patient flow while trying to protect residents seeking COVID-19 tests last year.

The pandemic drove healthcare providers and vendors to take an even closer look at facility entrances: who enters a facility, how they come in, and how they leave. On a typical, pre-pandemic day, vendors would plan a visit, verify their identity, enter the facility, and receive a compliant badge—often via a credentialing kiosk. Until registration was complete and all requirements fulfilled, vendor representatives weren’t authorized to do business with the hospital. However, enforcement was sometimes inconsistent across facilities, departments, vendor entities, and representatives.

Then, COVID-19 hit and heightened public awareness of safety protocols. Healthcare facilities were acutely aware of the need to consistently enforce protocols for verifying who was in a building at a given time. In response, mobile COVID-19 health screening apps became part of the procedure, integrating with credentialing kiosks to provide healthcare facilities with a consistent approach to creating safer spaces for patients, providers, visitors, and vendors.