The Gunnison Valley Health Approach to Vaccine Hesitancy. While rural healthcare organizations have unique challenges in pandemic response, they also have some unique advantaged.
Chief among these is the small community that enables relatively easy individualized engagement with vaccine hesitant employees.
he infection prevention (IP) and human resources (HR) departments identified all non-vaccinated employees. With this list, the IP and HR team reached out individually to all non-vaccinated employees. These conversations were done in a supportive manner to ensure each employee had the opportunity to receive individualized attention in a manner that provided them with a safe place to have their questions answered or their concerns heard.
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Surpassing Expectations:
The fact that GVH was able to surpass 80% immunization was a testament to their strategies of enhancing convenience and engaging in tailored outreach to hesitant employees. the peer reviewed literature suggested that workers at a lower educational level and at long-term care facilities might be more of a challenge to vaccinate. Regarding those hesitant to vaccinate, it is notable that based on their pre-vaccination surveys, GVH was eventually able to convince fully one in four employees who were “probably not” or “definitely not” going to get vaccine to do so.
Communication
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in rural populations has further weakened the ability of rural health facilities to meet the needs of their communities.
Read MoreConvenience
Gunnison Valley Health began vaccinating employees on December 16, 2020. By May 18, 2021, 82% had received at least one dose of vaccine.
Read MoreContinuity
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in rural populations has further weakened the ability of rural health facilities to meet the needs of their communities.
Read MoreContrasting Sites
In contrast, at least one institution showed vaccine acceptance by summer of 2021 that was below initial surveys. For example, Yale’s initial surveys released December 2020 (see below) showed that 84% of employees affirmed vaccination intent (see graph at right), but by summer of 2021, the combined organization achieved 81% vaccination. GVH’s ability to surpass its initial survey results in regard to vaccination rates should be recognized as an achievement.
In regard to place of work, although it took an addition 6-8 weeks to accomplish, long-term care employee vaccination eventually reached the 70% mark. However, success is tempered by the realization that the long-term care health workforce vaccination continues to lag beyond the organization as a whole.
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Employee Survey 2020
87% of vaccination group wanted it as quickly as possible and 84% had affirmed plans to receive vaccine.
Reasons for Hesitancy
Common concerns about the vaccination include the concern for long term consequences, side effects, and lack of trust.
There was concern for long term consequences in 74.5% of unvaccinated employees.
There was concern for side effects in 60.7% of unvaccinated employees.
There was concern for long term consequences in 57.94% of unvaccinated employees.
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