By By Dan Hounsell

The nationwide programs to deliver COVID-19 vaccines has meant that many employees of health systems have been protected from the illness. For many health systems, though, the expanding programs also have meant physical changes to facilities in order to accommodate the programs.

The Advisory Board offers the five steps facility managers can use to design and implement an efficient vaccination site. For example, Mount Sinai Morningside in New York City collected as many facts as were available in order to understand where things stood.

This information included the delivery route of the vaccines, the storage capability of the hospital's pharmacy, the number of people trained to operate the site, the number of doses expected to be made from each vial, the number of pharmacists available to reconstitute the drug, and the estimated shelf life of a reconstituted vaccine.

Based on the data, Mount Sinai Morningside determined that it would locate its vaccine pod in the facility's auditorium. The hospital then began exploring what the vaccination process might look like by adopting a simulation mindset and considering possible options in the space where those processes would be implemented.