San Francisco Health Network and San Francisco Health Plan Partner to deliver COVID-19 Vaccines

SAN FRANCISCO, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Francisco Health Network published a commentary in the NEJM CATALYST on April 6, 2021 titled "Concentrating Vaccines in Neighborhoods with High Covid-19 Burden."  SFHP partnered with the SFHN network by providing a multi-lingual call center to help the community navigate the web-based scheduling systems and by launching successful interventions to vaccinate diverse communities via social media, text messaging, robo-calling, letters, and direct operator calling to ensure that all members of our community have free and fair access to the COVID-19 vaccinations in San Francisco County.

"Public health care delivery systems have played a vital role in the vaccine response for low-income, diverse communities.  The state of CA has relied upon high-technology methods of engaging the public to get vaccinated, potentially causing a barrier to access to care for lower income communities," said Fiona Donald, MD, Chief Medical Officer of San Francisco Health Plan.  "We believe that SFHP can help to remove these barriers and provide alternative ways to provide access to vaccines via our multi-lingual call center and direct outreach approach to the low-income, diverse communities in San Francisco."

San Francisco Health Plan's (SFHP) mission is to improve health outcomes of the diverse San Francisco communities through successful partnerships.  Supporting the needs of our provider network is central to our mission. SFHP partnered with a Bay Area vendor, Tactical Telesolutions, Inc. (TTS), to provide a multi-lingual call center.  SFHP and TTS were able to recruit and train the call center staff in under three weeks to provide the much-needed support to the SFHN network for COVID-19 vaccinations.

"We have been gratified to do our part to assist the dedicated staff at the City's vaccine sites and clinics with the vaccine effort.  Our focus has been to provide appointment scheduling help to the vital In-Home Support Service workforce and vulnerable populations that may not have access to the internet's appointment scheduling systems.  Our staff and the call center have heard our SFHP members and IHSS workers tell them how much they appreciated their help with getting vaccinated.  Our partners in the City have been impressive and we have been proud to be a part of the effort," said John F. Grgurina, Jr., CEO of San Francisco Health Plan. 

About San Francisco Health Plan
San Francisco Health Plan is an NCQA accredited licensed community health plan providing affordable health coverage over 157,000 low and moderate-income families residing in San Francisco. SFHP is designed for and by the residents it serves—many of whom would not be able to otherwise obtain health care for themselves or their families. Through SFHP, members have access to a full spectrum of medical services including preventive care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, family planning, and substance abuse programs. SFHP's mission is to improve health outcomes of the diverse San Francisco communities through successful partnerships. San Francisco Health Plan is also the third-party administrator for the nationally recognized Healthy San Francisco program. For more information on SFHP, visit www.sfhp.org,

About NCQA
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes clinicians in key clinical areas. NCQA's HEDIS® is the most widely used performance measurement tool in healthcare. NCQA's website (www.ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed health care choices.

SOURCE San Francisco Health Plan