Public-Private Partnership Launches Mass Vaccination Program At Bank Of America Stadium In Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The unique public-private partnership spearheaded by Honeywell, Atrium Health, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway is launching a mass vaccination program over the next three days at Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Football Club. The effort brings together each organization's unique strengths in logistics, healthcare and managing large events, to vaccinate as many area residents as quickly as possible.

"Working closely with tremendous support from the State of North Carolina, Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte, the partners are bringing their collective strengths and capabilities to help optimize the vaccination process, eliminate bottlenecks and reduce waiting times," said Darius Adamczyk, chairman and CEO of Honeywell. "Together with our terrific partners Atrium Health, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway, we are establishing a model that will greatly benefit North Carolina and, we hope, will prove useful to many other parts of the country."

"What I am most excited about is that the Bank of America Stadium and Charlotte Motor Speedway are such recognized locations that we are drawing thousands of people to be vaccinated from nearly 60 counties throughout North Carolina," said Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health. "And further, we are working directly with the local faith community to provide direct access to underserved neighborhoods and people of color, who have been hit the hardest by this virus. In short, these mass vaccination events are not only saving many lives in the Charlotte area but also throughout the state."     

"Providing these vaccinations is an essential task for the health of our community and an important step in returning to a sense of normalcy," said Tom Glick, president of Tepper Sports & Entertainment. "We're grateful to be part of this partnership with so many great organizations, and proud to do our part by providing Bank of America Stadium for this mass vaccination event. We've taken the learnings from last week's event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and many of the practices and policies we had in place from the football season to create an efficient and safe experience for those who visit the stadium this weekend. We're going to be able to provide a lot of vaccinations and hope that our operation can serve as a model that can be replicated for other venues across our region and the country."

On Jan. 14, Honeywell, Atrium Health, Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway announced a unique public-private partnership with a bold plan of distributing 1 million doses of the vaccine by July 4, 2021. With support from the State of North Carolina and Gov. Roy Cooper, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and local governments, these organizations will work together to administer vaccinations, provide logistics and operations support, and offer venues for an efficient and safe initiative.

At a similar event last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway – the first mass vaccination event in North Carolina – record efficiency levels were met, with nearly 16,000 vaccinations delivered in three days. The daily vaccination pace ran an average of 7% to 8% ahead of schedule, thanks, in part, to technologies such as Honeywell's Scan-n-Fill bar code solution, which reduced processing time from 5-10 minutes for manual entry to 30 seconds. The average time from start to finish for the drive-through process ranged from 25 to 40 minutes per vehicle, including wait time in line, registration, vaccine administration and a required patient observation period. Similar techniques for optimized productivity and efficiency will be employed at Bank of America Stadium.

"We safely and effectively used the Speedway for North Carolina's largest vaccination event and helped get a critical first dose to 16,000 people," said Marcus Smith, president and chief executive officer, Speedway Motorsports. "People enjoyed driving on the track and the entire process was expedient for patients. This effort is a big step toward everyone safely taking part in everyday activities, attending sporting events and spending time with extended family and friends."

Combining Varied Strengths to Drive Vaccination Distribution Scale
The partners are combining their collective strengths – productivity and supply chain automation, healthcare services and large event execution capabilities – to accelerate the vaccine delivery process across North Carolina and serve as a model for other states' vaccination distribution plans.

• Honeywell has integrated some of its leading productivity and supply chain automation solutions, usually deployed in warehouse and distribution center operations used by large e-commerce and retail companies. These include solutions that help with data entry and traffic management, and handheld scanners and printers to assist with logistics. Honeywell bar codes and scanners are being used to process documents and reduce manual data entry into the state-reporting portal and automated systems. Honeywell video management systems and video analytics use artificial intelligence to count cars and people at the vaccination sites, without identifying individual patients, to predict and improve patient wait time and determine staffing needs. Combined, these technologies help lessen bottlenecks, reduce waiting times and increase the doses administered at each site. 
  
• Atrium Health is the largest non-profit health system in the southeast with over 15 million patient interactions each year. It is able to utilize its existing technology, patient system, size and scale to administer the vaccine to the many communities it serves across the Carolinas and Georgia. From reaching out to its patients and community members, to scheduling tens of thousands of appointments, to utilizing its medical professionals, Atrium Health ensures each person's health and safety while receiving the vaccine. Atrium Health manages the state and national relationships needed to ensure a steady vaccine allocation, while ensuring all guidelines are adhered to when coordinating these mass vaccination events on top of regular vaccinations.
  
• Tepper Sports & Entertainment and Charlotte Motor Speedway are unique not just in their large spaces, but their experience in hosting large-scale events to help keep people safely distributed throughout their facilities to maintain social distancing.

The partners are also providing non-clinical volunteers to help staff the mass vaccination events.

Atrium Health will announce future mass vaccination events based on vaccine availability. More information about Atrium Health's vaccination plans for the public, including FAQs, can be found at AtriumHealth.org/COVID19Vaccine.  

Honeywell
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com/us/en) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/us/en/news.

Atrium Health
Atrium Health is a nationally recognized leader in shaping health outcomes through innovative research, education and compassionate patient care. Atrium Health is an integrated, nonprofit health system with more than 70,000 teammates serving patients at 42 hospitals and more than 1,500 care locations. It provides care under the Wake Forest Baptist Health name in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, region and Atrium Health Navicent in Georgia. Atrium Health is renowned for its top-ranked pediatric, cancer and heart care, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. A recognized leader in experiential medical education and groundbreaking research, Wake Forest School of Medicine is the academic core of the enterprise, including Wake Forest Innovations, which is advancing new medical technologies and biomedical discoveries. Atrium Health is also a leading-edge innovator in virtual care and mobile medicine, providing care close to home and in the home. Ranked among U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals for cancer treatment and in eight pediatric specialties, Atrium Health has also received the American Hospital Association's Quest for Quality Prize and was the recipient of the 2020 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Equity Award for its efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care. With a commitment to every community it serves, Atrium Health seeks to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing – for all, providing more than $2 billion per year in free and uncompensated care and other community benefits.