Expediting a Statewide COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout with Design Thinking

Overview:
The beginning of 2021 was a strange time for everyone across the world.  The entire planet was on its ninth month of lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Many lives had been lost and the economy was in turmoil.  In January it was announced that multiple vaccines would be approved in the next few weeks and that they would be supplied to individual states for mass deployment.  There was no playbook for vaccinating millions of people within a few months.  One of the largest states in the US looked at the situation and decided to engage Stonehill as its innovation partner for accomplishing the goal.

Approach:
Stonehill mobilized its team within a matter of days and spent 6 months operating out of the Emergency Management Center at the State Capitol.  Within 2 weeks Stonehill established a PMO, created an operational strategy for technology deployment, and helped select the technology platform for appointments and vaccination records.  Stonehill managed the deployment of the platform and over the course of the next 8 weeks implemented it across multiple counties - allowing the Department of Health to focus on physical vaccine logistics.  The next few weeks had Stonehill developing custom business intelligence tools to report on the number of vaccines being administered within each county.  The entire engagement leveraged design thinking and was completed within six months as the state’s vaccination percentage exceeded 50% and the emergency order was rescinded allowing for wind down of the deployment.

Results:
Stonehill is proud to have been involved in such an important initiative.  Simply put - our teams’ efforts potentially saved the lives of thousands and ensured sustainability of hundreds of businesses.