Jennifer Attonito on Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout In Florida

12/07/21 • 24 min

The availability of pharmacist-administered vaccination has grown in recent decades. Proximity to a pharmacy has found to be predictive of vaccine use.

In Florida, Publix grocery stores were the first retail pharmacies to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to eligible members of the public. For more than a month after the initial rollout, Publix remained the sole retail pharmacy authorized to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

Grocery stores seem like a natural place to reach a large share of the population, but grocery stores are not located evenly throughout communities.

Jennifer Attonito, an instructor of health administration from Florida Atlantic University, joins A Health Podyssey to discuss disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines during the initial vaccine rollout in Florida.

Attonito and co-authors published a paper in the December 2021 issue of Health Affairs that analyzed the locations of Publix stores in Florida. They found that the Publix locations don't always line up with where the needs are greatest.

Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Jennifer Attonito on her research, its implications in the context of broader vaccine disparities, and health equity.

If you enjoyed this interview, order the December 2021 Health Affairs issue.

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The availability of pharmacist-administered vaccination has grown in recent decades. Proximity to a pharmacy has found to be predictive of vaccine use.

Grocery stores seem like a natural place to reach a large share of the population, but grocery stores are not located evenly throughout communities.

Listen to Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interview Jennifer Attonito on her research, its implications in the context of broader vaccine disparities, and health equity.

If you enjoyed this interview, order the December 2021 Health Affairs issue.

Subscribe: RSS | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts

Previous Episode

Is fee-for-service the smoking gun for U.S. health care spending?

This episode originally aired on November 10, 2020.

The U.S. health policy community recognizes that fee-for-service models incentivize physicians and health systems to perform more tasks than may be needed. And, these models can contribute to industry fragmentation as organizations chase revenue.

But is fee-for-service really the smoking gun when it comes to the high levels of U.S. health care spending?

The answer is, unsurprisingly, complicated.

To discuss, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Dr. Michael K. Gusmano, professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and research scholar at The Hastings Center, to examine how physician payments are set in France, Germany, and Japan. These countries all employ fee-for-service models but pay less than the U.S. when it comes to health spending.

What can the U.S. learn from these countries? Is policy importation even possible?

Alan Weil and Dr. Gusmano explore these questions and more on A Health Podyssey.

Next Episode

Esther Friedman Explains Home Care and Nursing Home Workforce Changes

When you think of the health care workforce, nurses and physicians are probably the first professions which come to mind.

But there are actually more personal care aides in the US than physicians. Together with home health aides and nursing assistants, personal care aides comprise one-fifth of the US health care workforce. These workers provide essential supports to people who face limitations in basic activities such as eating, bathing, and moving around.

As the US population ages, the demand for home health and personal care aides is projected to increase by nearly 1.2 million additional jobs by 2030.

Esther Friedman from the University of Michigan joins A Health Podyssey to discuss the changing size in employment in the personal care workforce.

Friedman and colleagues published a paper in the December 2021 edition of Health Affairs investigating state level changes in the nursing home and home care workforce between 2009 and 2020. While almost all states experienced an increase in the overall size of their home care workforce, most saw a decrease in their nursing home workforce relative to the number of people who need these services.

If you enjoy this interview, order the December 2021 Health Affairs issue.

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