A COVID-19 vaccine is still likely months away, but public and private healthcare organizations around the globe are preparing for the massive task of vaccinating hundreds of millions of people against the deadly disease. On September 30, Salesforce announced Work.com for Vaccines, a suite of new capabilities for the company’s Work.com platform designed to help city, state and federal governments distribute, track and measure their COVID-19 vaccination programs. Work.com was launched in June 2020 to help companies and organizations return to work safely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Technology is going to play a critical role in helping governments and healthcare organizations distribute what promises to be billions of doses of vaccines around the world,” said Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce, in a press release. “We’re proud to play our part with Work.com for Vaccines, giving organizations the technology they need to safely and efficiently deploy their vaccine programs at scale, powered by Salesforce’s trusted Customer 360 platform.”

In an interview with TechRepublic, Bill Patterson, EVP and general manager of CRM Applications at Salesforce, said that the COVID-19 vaccination efforts will be “unlike any, from a logistical and scale perspective,” that many of their clients have faced. According to Patterson, Work.com for Vaccines can offer healthcare organizations the “flexibility, speed, and scale” they need to prepare and carry out their vaccination programs.

Although Work.com for Vaccines will most often be used by local, regional and national governments and their respective healthcare agencies, Patterson said the platform could be also be used by private sector healthcare companies. He pointed to an existing Salesforce partnership with CVS Health. Earlier this year, the healthcare giant rolled out the “Return Ready” program that was built using the Work.com platform and helps employers do scheduled, coordinate COVID-19 testing either on-site or at a CVS location.

SEE: Hiring kit: Salesforce Developer (TechRepublic Premium)

Work.com for Vaccines capabilities

• Public Health Command Center: A dashboard that gives healthcare decision makers information, such as the health status of specific populations by demographic and current inventory levels. Having this information will allow healthcare professionals to make “data-driven decisions and take action when needed.”
• Vaccine Inventory Management: “Traditional vaccine administration management systems keep track of things like quantity and stock level, but they don’t necessarily keep track of the dosage level that is still remaining in a vial,” Patterson said. Salesforce’s system is designed to help organizations track vaccine doses as well as critical equipment such as syringes and PPE. This can help organizations forecast demand, allocate resource to maximum affect and reduce waste.
• Vaccination Appointment Scheduling: A system that organizations can use to help people schedule their vaccination visits, a critical process especially for COVID-19 vaccines that require multiple doses (an initial dose and a booster) to be affective. This system can also be used to “perform health assessments with electronic consent capture, while allowing clinicians to determine and prioritize eligibility.”
• Clinical Vaccine Administration: Healthcare providers can use this capability to help ensure medical professionals have received training on vaccine administration and that any necessary patient pre-screenings and approvals have taken place before their vaccination appointment.
• Vaccination Outcome Monitoring: This capability will help healthcare agencies track both patient experience with the vaccination process and healthcare outcomes after vaccination. “Patients can self-report their health outcomes with self-service guided surveys, while clinicians can follow up quickly with residents if a larger health concern in the population is detected.”
• Public Health Notifications: This capability is designed to help government agencies manage their public education and outreach campaigns, communicate with patients and healthcare providers, and even automate recurring communications, such as appointment reminders.

SEE: Highlights: Salesforce TrailheaDX 2020 (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Work.com for Vaccines pricing and availability

Work.com for Vaccines isn’t technically a new product, but according to Salesforce, “consists of existing Salesforce Customer 360 products, which can be extended by customers to build and scale their vaccine administration programs.” In addition to being available on Work.com, Patterson said Salesforce is working with partners like Accenture, Deloitte, Infosys, MTX building last-mile applications and local variations on the platform to address the needs of individual customers. Pricing will also be based on each customer’s specific needs.

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