A unique partnership that brought the COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds of members of diverse communities in the Seattle area in March had a little help from Advanced Professionals Insurance & Benefit Solutions, Newfront’s wholesale benefits division. 

Advanced Professionals staff were among the dozens of volunteers needed to keep patients safely flowing through the pop-up vaccine clinics, which were coordinated in part by client Business Health Trust and its plan sponsor, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. 

Business Health Trust, an association health plan that offers employee benefits to members of the Seattle Chamber, partnered with local grocery stores and other business organizations to “Get the vaccine into hundreds of arms, without wasting a single dose,” in the words of The Stranger article How an Army of Volunteers Helped Vaccinate Nearly 1,000 People in Two Days. 

“This clinic is an exciting example of how we can work together to expand vaccine access in an inclusive way and get our whole community on the road to recovery,” said Rachel Smith, president and CEO of the Seattle Chamber. 

One of the pop-up clinics was in Seattle’s diverse White Center neighborhood, which has had one of the highest rates of COVID-19 incidence in King County and where fewer than half of residents age 65 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine. The two clinic locations offered materials and translation in multiple languages, including Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese, Khmer, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Tamil, Ukrainian, sign language and English. 

“As we continue to work to support more vaccine clinics, we are dedicated to helping bridge barriers such as language that arise,” said Sarai Childs, executive director of Business Health Trust. 

Since the first U.S. case of the COVID-19 pandemic was identified in Washington state a year ago, Business Health Trust has mobilized its partners to help provide valuable resources to its members, including stand-up hand sanitizer stations and personal protective equipment (PPE) at no additional cost. 

“Bringing the business community together to proactively support these efforts is key to helping us reopen safely,” Sarai said.  

Advanced Professionals is the managing agent for Business Health Trust, which insures more than 15,000 small business employees across Washington state. Its diverse insurance benefits include medical, dental, vision, life/AD&D, legal, retirement and more.