Looking through the glass windows of the Chevy Chase Bank Conference Center on a busy Tuesday morning, you couldn’t see much behind the medical privacy screens. You’d never know that behind those screens, Johns Hopkins Hospital employees were receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

One of the first of nearly 100 employee volunteers vaccinated at special pop-up and mobile clinics at the hospital was environmental care associate Billy Marome. An employee of Johns Hopkins for 52 years, Marome doesn’t use email, so MyChart activation was not convenient for him. Initially, employees were required to schedule an appointment through a MyChart online health account — a barrier for those who didn’t have access to a computer or a MyChart account.

“I had been wanting to get the vaccine, but wasn’t sure of the best way to do so,” said Marome. “I was able to walk right in to the clinic without an appointment. There happened to be an extra dose, and I received my vaccine right there. The process couldn’t have been any easier for me.”

While thousands of employees across the health system have received the COVID-19 vaccine, the number of ancillary and support staff, such as environmental care and cafeteria staff, getting vaccinated was low. 

In an effort to support the strategic priority to “make Johns Hopkins Medicine easy,” a team led by Deb Sherman, interim chief nursing informatics officer for Johns Hopkins Health System and Johns Hopkins Hospital program director of clinical informatics, created pop-up and mobile clinics to bring the vaccine to employees.

Sherman leads this internal equity vaccination program of volunteers whose goal is to make the vaccine as accessible as possible to employees regardless of their role, particularly those who don’t use email, may have struggled with MyChart activation or were unable to step away from their duties. This program is successful due to partnerships throughout the hospital, including the departments environmental services and nutrition leadership, and teams within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, occupational health, health IT, pharmacy, nursing, clinical informatics, clinical information systems education, and Office of Service Excellence.

Carole Martens, director of facilities compliance, encouraged supervisors to “keep up conversations” about the vaccine and to identify vaccine champions who would take the time to listen to their employees’ concerns and answer questions. Communications between the employees and supervisors allowed them to completely eliminate any MyChart obstacles, Martens said.

“Our volunteers make the time because they want to make a difference by ensuring people are vaccinated and to help us get out of this pandemic, sooner rather than later,” said Sherman.

Employees who were able to complete the MyChart activation were vaccinated at the occupational health station outside Turner Auditorium, which Sherman described as a “well-oiled machine.”

“We did this program to help our staff get the vaccine easily — we wanted our support staff to know that they are an important part of what we do at Johns Hopkins. We can’t fulfill our mission without them,” said Sherman.

If you are interested in bringing a mobile vaccination clinic to your department, reach out to Deb Sherman at [email protected].