Partnerships and Collaboration
This case study is on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine distribution via mobile vans to residents/staff of 47,907 long-term care facilities (LTCFs) across the United States that relied on algorithms to optimize vaccine distribution. The authors developed a modeling framework for vaccine distribution to high-risk populations in a supply-constrained environment. The framework decomposed this challenge as two separate problems: an assignment problem, where they optimally mapped each LTCF to select CVS stores responsible for vaccines; and a scheduling problem, where they developed an algorithm to assign available resources efficiently. The learning and this framework may be of use to other organizations, including communities where mobile clinics can be established to efficiently distribute vaccines and other healthcare resources in a variety of scenarios.