Richmond School District – Supporting Aging Population with Shingles Vaccination

Case Study: Richmond School District (RSD38) – Shingles Vaccination Program

Richmond School District in B.C. has 20,000 students and 2,200 staff. “Our school district has an aging workforce that’s easily prone to contracting illnesses” said Augustus (Gus) Lee, Richmond School District’s manager of health and safety. “To help minimize risk of illness, I found vaccines are a valuable, yet simple tool to help staff maintain productive and healthy lives.”

RSD38 offers a variety of employer-sponsored workplace wellness programs. As part of his development of workplace wellness programming, Lee determined that not only has their workforce aging, but some unimmunized staff had developed complications due to vaccine-preventable illnesses. He was concerned that employees would be at risk without vaccination and recommended a workplace program.

They started with a shingles vaccination program because within one year, nine staff over 50 contracted shingles. The earliest recovery was four months, with some reporting they still had pain after 1.5 years.

SD38 partnered with Immunize.io, a non-for-profit provider that offered a turnkey immunization program. The shingles vaccine requires two doses—staff had to pay out-of-pocket for the first dose and RSD38 reimbursed them for the second dose, which helped motivate them to complete the vaccine series. Completion rates for second doses are typically 65-70%; however, the program saw a 97% completion rate.   According to Johal, the increased uptake was likely due to convenience and financial support. Of nearly 1,000 full-time staff who were eligible for a shingles vaccine, initially 320 received first and second doses, and an additional 130 through subsequent programs. 

Lee said one of the key benefits of running the program was a decrease in sick leave. He also noted that the staff appreciated the convenience, cost-splitting measures and how their employer went beyond what’s normally offered. RSD38 plans to continue offering workplace immunization programs for shingles, as well as other vaccine-preventable illnesses going forward.

While most workplace clinics ran smoothly without any problems, having the clinic on a professional development day limited employees’ ability to attend other events. Lee suggested that future clinics should be offered outside working hours, too. “Next time I would focus more on advanced communication for promoting the event,” he added. “This will ensure staff have enough time to plan for their appointment.”