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Supporting the CDC’s vaccine order access and response process
Key takeaways
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) worked with Maximus to improve access to the agency’s Vaccine Tracking System (VTrcksS) to advance vaccine distribution to commercial and federal (C&F) partners and the communities they serve. The efforts helped the CDC protect public health by optimizing system onboarding and access, integrating leading IT solutions, and providing agile surge support.
Improved onboarding and access for a critical vaccine tracking system
Situation
For more than 70 years, the CDC has put science into action to help fight disease, with vaccines playing a critical role. The agency manages the vaccine supply chain with VTrckS, which handles vaccine purchasing, ordering, and distribution to 64+ state, local, and territorial health departments, 44K+ healthcare providers, six vaccine manufacturers, and a centralized CDC distributor. The system enables the distribution of vaccines to nearly 2 million people in the U.S. annually.
Challenge
The CDC needed to accelerate access to VTrckS, which was taking six+ weeks for new users. System onboarding was dependent on user response accuracy and timeliness, with incorrect or delayed information creating barriers to vaccine fulfillment.
Solution
Our team integrated IT solutions, including automated voice response, call routing, web-based ticketing, e-mail, and quality management recording to optimize and reduce barriers to VTrckS access while ensuring the quality and integrity of new system user information and tracking. We met the CDC’s challenge with:
- A system walkthrough approach to onboarding, reducing input errors, and duplicate access requests
- A call menu option specific to COVID-19 vaccine orders to accelerate fulfillment
- A tiered operational structure to boost efficiencies
- Multi-channel support for new vaccine tracking system users, improving usability
- An expert training process, including initial and ongoing refresher training, helping to increase value from current staff
- Informative reporting to flag increased system volume and surge support needs, augmenting staff capacity
- Monitoring of burn rates and surge staffing hours, helping to prevent cost overages
Digitally enabled, data-driven solutions and human-centered design
How we did it
As a long-trusted CDC contact center partner, Maximus was uniquely positioned to expertly advise the agency on optimizing its systems to meet mission-critical objectives. Our team’s experience in digitally enabled, data-driven solutions and human-centered approaches was critical to successful implementation. By addressing call volume surges with innovative solutions that advanced the vaccine order and fulfillment process, Maximus played a critical role in mission success.
Results
- Onboarded 200+ new C&F partner system users since October 2020
- Increased availability of COVID-19 vaccines across communities through long-term care facilities, retail pharmacies, federally qualified health centers, and state and federal jurisdictions
- Reduced errors, bringing duplicative system onboarding to zero
- Reduced system onboarding time from six+ weeks to two weeks
- 97% overall Contact Center Quality, 99% Front Office and Checkpoint Quality, 100% one business day email response time, and 95% of calls answered within 10 seconds