The Challenge of Administering 75,000 Vaccinations Custom Case Solution & Analysis

1. Evidence Brief — Business Case Data Researcher

The following data points are extracted from the operational records of the Vaccination Super Station initiative.

Financial Metrics

• The operation targets 5,000 vaccinations per day to achieve the scale required for regional immunity.
• Administrative costs include staffing for 350 to 400 personnel per 12-hour shift.
• Vaccine supply is provided via government allocation, making the primary cost driver operational throughput rather than inventory purchase.
• Overhead includes the lease of Petco Park facilities and specialized cold storage for mRNA vaccine requirements.

Operational Facts

Stakeholder Positions

• UCSD Health Leadership: Focused on clinical safety and the feasibility of scaling medical personnel.
• City of San Diego: Priorities include traffic management around the stadium and public safety.
• San Diego Padres: Providing the venue while managing facility maintenance and security concerns.
• Frontline Staff: Concerned with burnout due to 12-hour shifts and high-volume repetitive tasks.

Information Gaps

• The case does not provide a specific long-term schedule for vaccine arrival, creating uncertainty in staffing needs.
• Data on the percentage of no-show appointments is absent, which impacts daily throughput calculations.
• The exact cost per dose administered is not explicitly stated in the financial exhibits.

2. Strategic Analysis — Market Strategy Consultant

Core Strategic Question

• How can the Super Station scale to 5,000 daily doses while managing the physical constraints of the venue and the variability of vaccine supply?
• How should the organization balance speed of delivery with the necessity of clinical safety and data accuracy?

Structural Analysis

Applying Queueing Theory and Bottleneck Analysis reveals that the clinical injection is not the primary constraint. The observation period of 15 minutes creates a physical footprint bottleneck. With 42 lanes and a 15-minute wait, the facility must accommodate at least 125 people in the observation area at any given moment to maintain flow. Any delay in check-in or clinical screening cascades into the parking lot, creating a secondary bottleneck in local traffic.

Strategic Options

Option 1: Specialized Labor Division. Separate administrative check-in from clinical screening and injection. Use non-clinical volunteers for data entry and medical students for injections under supervision. This maximizes the utilization of high-cost clinical staff.

• Rationale: Decreases cycle time per station.
• Trade-offs: Increases the risk of data entry errors.
• Resources: Large pool of non-clinical volunteers and IT training modules.

Option 2: Digital-First Pre-Registration. Mandate all clinical screening questions be answered via MyChart before arrival. The site becomes a purely physical execution point.

• Rationale: Minimizes on-site dwell time.
• Trade-offs: Excludes populations with low digital literacy.
• Resources: Significant IT support for patient troubleshooting.

Preliminary Recommendation

Pursue Option 1. The immediate constraint is the availability of clinical staff. By de-skilling the administrative tasks and focusing clinicians only on the injection and emergency response, the site can reach the 5,000-dose target without increasing the physical footprint of the vaccination lanes.

3. Implementation Roadmap — Operations Specialist

Critical Path

The success of the 5,000-dose target depends on the following sequence:

• Day 1-7: Finalize the staffing matrix to ensure a 1:4 ratio of clinicians to volunteers.
• Day 8-14: Configure the IT interface to allow rapid QR code scanning for patient check-in.
• Day 15-21: Conduct a pilot run at 50 percent capacity to identify physical flow friction points in the parking lot.
• Day 22: Full scale operation at 5,000 doses per day.

Key Constraints

• Staffing Fatigue: 12-hour shifts in a high-pressure environment lead to diminishing returns in accuracy and speed.
• Cold Chain Integrity: The mRNA vaccines require strict temperature controls. Any delay in the physical line risks vaccine expiration if doses are drawn too early.

Risk-Adjusted Implementation Strategy

The plan includes a 15 percent buffer in staffing to account for last-minute absences. To mitigate supply volatility, the daily appointment count will be locked only 48 hours in advance based on confirmed inventory on hand. This prevents the reputational damage of mass cancellations.

4. Executive Review and BLUF — Senior Partner

BLUF

The vaccination project is a logistical challenge rather than a clinical one. To hit the 5,000-dose daily target, the operation must decouple administrative data collection from the clinical act of injection. The primary risk is not the speed of the needle, but the physical capacity of the 15-minute observation zone and the stability of the IT check-in process. We will proceed with a specialized labor model that maximizes clinician throughput while using volunteers for all non-medical tasks. Success depends on maintaining a 48-hour inventory-to-appointment lock.

Dangerous Assumption

The analysis assumes that the 15-minute observation period is a fixed constant that the physical space can always accommodate. If a patient has a reaction, the station and the surrounding area are blocked, which is not factored into the linear throughput models. A single medical emergency can reduce site capacity by 20 percent for one hour.

Unaddressed Risks

• IT System Downtime: The reliance on Epic MyChart creates a single point of failure. If the system goes offline, the site has no manual backup process to verify patient identity or dose eligibility at scale. Probability: Medium. Consequence: Total site stoppage.
• Local Traffic Gridlock: The location at Petco Park is subject to urban traffic patterns. A delay in vehicle entry prevents staff from arriving on time and patients from hitting their windows. Probability: High. Consequence: Reduced daily throughput.

Unconsidered Alternative

The team did not evaluate a 24-hour operating model. While staffing costs would increase, a 24-hour cycle would utilize the facility more efficiently and allow for vaccinations during low-traffic hours, potentially doubling the daily capacity without increasing the physical footprint of the lanes.

Verdict

APPROVED FOR LEADERSHIP REVIEW