Vaccine Program Management Services

Response

HomeFlorida’s Vaccine Distribution Program

About the project

Tidal Basin provided program management support to the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) and Florida Digital Services (FDS) for the state of Florida’s vaccine program.

Key takeaways

  • Prime Contractor: Tidal Basin
  • Project Dates: January 2021 to July 2021
  • Allocation: $500M

    Challenge

    The state of Florida required a mass roll-out of vaccinations, which had not occurred in the state’s history. With the current death toll rate rising, the state faced the following challenges:

    • Vaccine logistics and distribution
    • Program and project management
    • Onsite staff support
    • Public outreach
    • Information systems and IT infrastructure
    • Call center services
    • Case management
    • Security planning
    • Financial reimbursement


    Solution

    Tidal Basin deployed more than 160 field staff to assist Florida with managing the vaccine distribution process. We developed and enacted program processes and aided data integration and distribution. We installed leadership in Florida’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to provide strategic advice and management, including daily site operations, technology solutions, call center scheduling, on-site staff support, training, etc. We also collaborated with the state communications team. We worked closely with the state communications team on messaging and ensuring counties that have opted-in to the state program understand the program processes and that the public understands the patient journey.

    Resilience Delivered

    On-Site Staff Support

    Tidal Basin provided training and on-site assistance to state, county, and health department officials by using the online appointment system to administer vaccines at more than 150 points of distribution (PODs) across the state. We also directly assisted patients with completing registrations on-site using the vaccine assistant technology in place for the program.

    We established an automated vaccine scheduling function, enabling a multilingual self-service hotline that pre-screens callers through an IVR (integrated voice response) system. In the first 30 days, our IVR solution accepted 3.8 million calls and pre-registered nearly 600,000 eligible residents. Our call center live agents also supported all 67 counties by answering frequently asked questions for the residents.

    Call Center Support

    Tidal Basin and their partner, MCI (a technology-enabled contact center service provider), provided call center and case management help to streamline scheduling and rescheduling vaccines at the applicable county and state POD locations.

    We launched the remote-based, live agent call center within 72 hours of notification. We employed an average of 3,500 customer care agents to assist with scheduling appointments for eligible residents’ first and second dose vaccines. Our live agent contact center fielded nearly 20 million phone calls and had an average handling time of 4.7 minutes, resulting in more than 218,000 vaccine appointments scheduled.

    Online Reservation Technology Support:

    Tidal Basin assisted the technology consultant with upgrading the online reservation portal. We successfully trained government officials to access real-time information regarding daily vaccination numbers, enabling them to measure results and plan more effectively.

    Your knowledge of the complex governmental regulations and equally complex insurance and adjusting issues really helped the county maximize the public assistance that was available after all of these disasters. You delivered what you promised, and we are confident in your ability and the ability of your firm to provide these services fully on a technical and professional level yet be able to translate clearly and concisely the intricate and sometimes subjective FEMA regulations which we could not have done without you.

    The State of Alaska…[has] a significant investment in the disaster recovery process for both state and federally declared events…. The collaboration with Tidal Basin in these efforts has been so successful and seamless that in most instances applicants and FEMA staff don’t even realize we have contractors on board unless we tell them. Our interaction with Tidal Basin staff and managers works and feels like true teammates and the result is a faster, more comprehensive delivery of disaster recovery resources to survivors.

    Months after the storm passed, the County was still faced with tremendous burdens related to the insurance coverage issues and FEMA and MEMA eligibility issues. Jackson County hired your organization to provide professional services for disaster assistance, remediation, restoration and recovery efforts….Their expertise with governmental regulations, the complex FEMA process and insurance adjustments resulted in our successful claim for over $2 million in additional FEMA Public Assistance funding specifically; in our successful negotiations with our insurance carrier; and in numerous other increases in the values FEMA and MEMA initially designated for County projects. Jackson County will always be mindful of the help we received from you when we needed it most.