Pennsylvania Health Systems Recognized for Pandemic Innovations

April 3, 2022

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia led a partnership to facilitate early access to COVID-19 vaccines for school and childcare employees

David Raths

Four health systems have been recognized by the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) for their projects addressing the needs of their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

HAP’s COVID Response Innovation Awards showcase the innovative teams, solutions, and projects that have helped shape the healthcare community’s response to, understanding of, and resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The winners were selected from nearly 80 blinded entries that were evaluated by a group of independent judges from Pennsylvania and across the nation. The winning projects are:

First Place: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia led a partnership to facilitate early access to COVID-19 vaccines for school and childcare employees with a focus on enabling schools and childcare providers to resume in-person operations while helping to protect the health and safety of students and staff.
Second Place: Allegheny Health Network won for two projects. One addressed shortages of N-95 respirators by developing a strategy for equipping staff with industrial respirators that could be sterilized and reused. The other was a campaign to stage mass vaccination events across the greater Pittsburgh region with a commitment to ensuring access for marginalized and historically underserved communities.
Third Place: Penn Medicine and Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic partnered on a project to address racial inequities in vaccine access by establishing rotating community vaccine clinics throughout the greater Philadelphia region that addressed environmental, socio-economic, and technology-related barriers to vaccine access.

“Pennsylvania hospitals have not only protected the health of their communities during this pandemic but have also been leaders in finding innovative solutions to the unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19,” HAP President and CEO Andy Carter said, in a statement. “These awards recognize the exceptional health care teams that developed creative strategies to meet their communities’ needs and address issues such as vaccine access, racial disparities in vaccination, and medical supply chain disruptions.”