Strategy
The South Dakota immunization program (IP) and Immunize South Dakota (a statewide coalition of immunization stakeholders) formalized a partnership to better support each other’s work and expand both programs’ capacity.
Challenge
Both the South Dakota IP and Immunize South Dakota have small teams, making their capacity for larger widescale projects more limited. Both saw an opportunity to explore ways to support each other’s work and grow their programmatic capacity. In 2021, they began quarterly meetings to share individual projects and to brainstorm initiatives that could be implemented across organizations. The partnership identified the state’s most pressing immunization education-related needs, such as provider education, identifying vaccine access barriers, and addressing vaccine hesitancy.
Solution
The IP and Immunize South Dakota established sustained collaboration with Medicaid, the South Dakota Pharmacy Association, the state Quality Improvement Network, and representatives from three of the largest health insurance carriers in the state. They also created a contract between the South Dakota IP and Immunize South Dakota to formalize the partnership and to outline specific deliverables between the two entities with the goal of increasing education opportunities. Projects to support this goal include providing a minimum of ten professional development opportunities, hosting one state-wide conference, creating and sharing resources for providers via multiple communication channels, and offering continuing education credits when applicable.
Outcome
Newsletters became one of the primary sources for sharing news, upcoming events, and resources. Immunize South Dakota was responsible for developing and sending the newsletter. After adjusting how the newsletter was sent, they were able to grow their listserv to nearly 1,100 recipients and have a 55-60% open rate. This newsletter was a major support in promoting a webinar series titled Online & In-the-Know. This webinar series is tailored to health care providers and features content related to immunization administration, best practices, and health equity. The IP and coalition also developed roles to evenly distribute responsibilities to support the webinars and trainings. The IP staff serve as presenters during the education opportunities and provide the continuing education credit, while the coalition staff coordinate and archive the events.
Supplemental Materials