Charlotte-Based Public-Private Partnership Provides How-To Guide for Mass Vaccination Events

02.25.2021 Atrium Health News

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 25, 2021 – An innovative public-private partnership spearheaded by Honeywell, Atrium Health, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway has widely distributed a how-to guide that can serve as a resource for leaders that are planning mass vaccination events in their communities. The partnership has provided the guide to the Biden administration and the governors of all 50 U.S. states.

The guide, titled “A Leader’s Guide to Safe, Fast and Equitable Community Vaccination Events,” compiles learnings from two mass vaccination events held by the partnership in Charlotte, North Carolina. It details the medical and logistical considerations put into place to hold the successful events at two professional sports venues with vastly different target audiences – including underserved populations. By applying the logistics and industrial engineering acumen of Honeywell, the medical expertise of Atrium Health, and the large venue management skills of Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway, the partnership was able to efficiently and safely vaccinate about 36,000 people over the course of two weekends with scalability at a rate of nearly 1,500 vaccinations per hour.

“Working with full support from and collaboration with the State of North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Cabarrus County, and the City of Charlotte, our public-private partnership has developed and optimized a plan to safely, efficiently, and equitably vaccinate tens of thousands of people over just a few days,” said Darius Adamczyk, chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell. “We hope that the learnings from our experience can benefit other parts of the country that are looking to vaccinate a greater proportion of their citizens more rapidly.”

“I am proud of the tremendous teamwork and speed-to-execution that went into successfully staging some of the nation's largest single-day mass vaccination events. Through this incredible public-private partnership – and within days of getting the green light from Governor Roy Cooper – we launched our first mass event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and followed it up a week later with an even larger event at Bank of America Stadium,” said Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health. “Not only do we hope our work provides a blueprint to accelerate our country's path to community immunity, but that it also serves as a model regarding the equitable distribution of the vaccine. In fact, we continue to work hand-in-hand with grassroots organizations and the faith community to stay laser focused on ensuring we provide vaccine access to those hardest hit by this virus – especially underserved neighborhoods and people of color.”

“A tremendous amount of collaboration and cooperation is needed to execute these mass vaccination events and it’s important that we share our learnings with others across the country,” said David Tepper, owner of Tepper Sports & Entertainment. “By combining each organization’s strengths in logistics, health care and the management of large events, we believe we have developed a strong model for future mass vaccination events that are safe and efficient.”

"This partnership and the dynamic results of the mass vaccination clinics shows what can happen when people come together for the greater good," said Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith. "Our biggest learning is that the efficiency of the process can lend itself to even more shots in arms than what we've already accomplished. With enough vaccine and personnel support, Charlotte Motor Speedway can host up to 30,000 vehicles per day following this playbook. Government leaders and health officials can use this information to create clinics nationwide and vaccinate millions of people."

Over six days in January, Honeywell, Atrium Health, Tepper Sports and Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway partnered to apply each company’s unique strengths in logistics, health care and managing large events to vaccinate about 36,000 people in the Charlotte area. Average time from start to finish for the process was approximately 25-30 minutes for each patient, including the CDC-recommended observation time of 15-30 minutes.