To get COVID-19 vaccinations to essential workers like educators, farm, food service and other vital personnel, SSM Health put together a dedicated task force to develop in-community, mobile vaccination clinics. In tandem with dedicated colleagues at Dean Health Plan, SSM Health partnered with schools, churches, merchants, grocers, manufacturers, restaurant associations and other community organizations to develop suitable and easily accessible on-site vaccination clinics across Wisconsin. 

SSM Health held its first one-day, on-site vaccination clinic on March 2, 2021, in Waunakee for 850 eligible education workers from the Waunakee Community and Sauk Prairie School Districts. A second mobile clinic followed just three days later, vaccinating 1,200 eligible Sun Prairie School personnel. 

SSM Health supplied the appropriate vaccines and medical equipment as well as nursing, pharmacy, organizational and public relations support for each event. To better serve Latino communities, the organization also offered qualified Spanish-language interpreters. SSM Health supplemented the vaccination team with qualified vaccinators from area emergency services providers, school nurses and nursing students who all generously volunteered their time and expertise. 

Since a two-dose series was required by both Moderna and Pfizer for full COVID-19 vaccination, the mobile vaccination team had to schedule both initial and second dose vaccinations within the appropriate timeframe. This meant arranging two on-site clinics at most of the community locations and arranging for adequate resources and personnel.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conferred vaccination eligibility on new populations of adults and children, the health care team begin to offer mobile clinics for them, paying particular attention to underserved communities. In April, SSM Health was fortunate to receive a $100,000 grant through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services which enabled it to add two temporary positions to help coordinate its growing mobile vaccination efforts. 

In May of 2021, Governor Tony Evers visited a clinic held in collaboration with the Urban League of Greater Madison. Thanks to the volunteer vaccinators, the Sable Flames, a non-profit group of Black firefighters, SSM Health was able to vaccinate 73 people that day.
Over the course of the next 19 months, SSM Health held 133 clinics to provide more 33,781 COVID-19 vaccine doses. These on-site clinics were held at a wide variety of locations across Wisconsin, including schools, churches, farmers markets, parks, libraries, grocery stores, restaurants, resorts, factories, farms, warehouses, a theatre and a Madison-area television station. 

When COVID-19 vaccines became more widely available, the efforts of the mobile vaccination team slowed but did not stop. The team continues to provide vaccinations in some area schools and, working with other health care providers, has expanded vaccination efforts to include the other common childhood vaccinations, (flu, Tdap, HPV and Meningococcal), that so many youngsters missed during the height of the pandemic.