COVID Chronicle June 2021

Meeting People Where They Are Maine’s beautiful and diverse topography is one of the reasons people choose to live here. Unfortunately, the old adage of “you can’t get there from here” applies to mass vaccination sites, too. Northern Light Home Care & Hospice, an integral player in testing outreach for isolated groups and communities, stepped up immediately to ensure that our more rural communities and homebound patients had access to COVID-19 vaccines. Between January - May, this team held 112 pop-up clinics in 31 communities, and visited 335 homebound patients, along-side running a large-scale vaccination site at the Maine Mall in South Portland. Healthcare for All A major focus during COVID-19 has been reaching out to communities that might miss out on care, testing, and vaccination. It helped that Northern Light Health already had robust translation services and outreach in place, but we knew that outreach to our immigrant and underserved communities would be important, and we would rely on leaders of those communities leading the way. Northern Light Mercy Hospital, located in Portland, took steps before their vaccination site opened at the Portland Expo to build those bridges. “All along, we’ve been working directly with multiple partner organizations to facilitate both registration and vaccination of large groups of new Mainers. While all sites have access to Northern Light Health’s Stratus translation solutions, at the Expo, we also have face to face interpreters and cultural brokers on site for every appointment,” shared Melissa Skahan, vice president of Mission Integration at Northern Light Mercy Hospital. Outside of Portland, Northern Light Home Care & Hospice deployed Health Equity pop-up clinics to underserved areas.

To communicate clearly and meet patient needs, vaccine information is made available in several languages.

“All along, we’ve been working directly with multiple partner organizations to facilitate both registration and vaccination of groups large and small of new Mainers. At the [Portland] Expo, we also have face to face interpreters and cultural brokers on site for every appointment.”

Melissa Skahan VP Mission Integration

Northern Light Mercy Hospital

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