Tech companies mobilize to schedule vaccine appointments, but often fall short

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Cities, states, businesses and tech volunteers are creating vaccination scheduling websites and apps, but frustration abounds because of misunderstood or changing rules and the unpredictably short supply of vaccine.

On Jan. 14 at 8:43 p.m., Patrick McKenzie tweeted a plea for tech engineers to help him set up a website to track COVID-19 vaccine availability in California. McKenzie, who heads a Bay Area financial services tech company, issued the call to “anyone in California [who] wants to do a civtech project which matters.”

The response was swift and resounding. In less than an hour, someone had set up a chat group for brainstorming the effort. By 12:24 a.m. the next day, 70 people had joined. By noon, the tracker was live. Now, just over two weeks later, the site, called VaccinateCA, involves about 300 volunteers. They operate what is essentially a call bank, dialing pharmacies and hospitals for updates about COVID vaccine supplies and posting the results on the site.

The quick and ardent response to McKenzie’s pitch highlights just how desperate Californians have become amid a chaotic vaccine rollout that has overwhelmed public health departments. Similar crowdsourced websites have gone up in GeorgiaNew JerseyMichiganTexas and other states.

While helpful to some, however, the websites and apps have only compounded the frustration for many people seeking vaccines for themselves or loved ones but can’t secure an appointment no matter how hard they try because supply is limited. Critics say that, at best, they simply enable the tech-savvy and people with time on their hands -- two groups that don’t necessarily overlap with those most in need of COVID vaccination -- while leaving poor and minority communities behind.

“If you have an hourly job, you’re not going to be on your phone every minute,” said Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, who likened the process of securing a vaccination to “The Hunger Games.”

“We need call centers. We need people going out into the community door to door, registering people as if there were a census. You need to somewhat structure the system to allow and prioritize access for the most disadvantaged -- reversing structural racism, or factors that exclude certain groups.”

Rhonda Smith, executive director of California Black Health Network, said it’s vital to reach out to communities where vaccine hesitancy is strong. While technology can help centralize information, building trust and relationships is what’s needed to convince skeptical communities of the vaccines’ importance.

“They aren’t going to just respond to a text message or a random app,” she said.

Platforms like VaccinateCA acknowledge their limitations. “We recognize that this isn’t our core strength today,” said Zoelle Egner, a volunteer with the site. But the app could be a resource for organizations that work with disenfranchised communities, she said.

California is also working with an online platform called My Turn, developed by Salesforce, that will alert residents when they are eligible for vaccination and facilitate sign-ups. The state announced last week that it had hired insurance company Blue Shield of California to create and manage a statewide vaccination network.

While some platforms offer a central place to search for pharmacies and links to sign up for updates from hospital systems or local governments, they can’t provide more vaccine-filled needles. With limited supply, a thousand allocation snafus and conflicting information about who is eligible, consumers find themselves signing up for wait lists and spending hours trying to snag appointments, only to be told there’s no vaccine for them or their loved ones. The apps can’t do anything about that.

Many users have found success. Melissa Reyes, who lives in Sacramento, was able to get her 76-year-old mother vaccinated after checking VaccinateCA. She called four pharmacies listed on the site before she hit the jackpot with her local Save Mart. She tweeted to VaccinateCA to thank the group.

For many others, success rests on luck: clicking through to the right pharmacy or supermarket website at the right time before all appointments are gone. For every exuberant user, there are often multiple frustrated people unable to land an appointment.

Misa Ahmad, whose 83-year-old father lives in Oakland, said VaccinateCA didn’t work for her. She ended up deciding to wait for her father’s health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, to contact him with an opening. (KHN, which produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

Her VaccinateCA search involved “going through trying to look at all of the places and figure out what they are, where they are, if they would be optimal for him, and then locating some and then trying to see if I can get an appointment. That is a very time-consuming process. And, unfortunately, my father has limited technological ability.”

Other users have found that the information provided is sometimes inaccurate, a product of ever-changing state and county regulations. Many Californians are still finding that, while Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that residents age 65 and older are eligible for the vaccines, their counties are still allowing only those 75 and older to sign up. Who is eligible for vaccination differs by county.

“What’s really frustrating is I keep getting texts and emails from the Department of Public Health saying, ‘You’re eligible for the shot; call your health care providers,’ and you call and no one is giving it to your age yet,” said Leanna Dawydak, a 66-year-old San Franciscan. She estimates she’s spent an average of four hours a day since Jan. 13 trying to find an appointment, only to be told she’s too young, lives in the wrong county or gets her care from the wrong health care system.

Some localities have purchased or set up their own apps, with mixed results. Orange County reportedly paid $1.2 million to tech company CuraPatient to create an app for organizing the vaccination of county residents. County public health officials had registered 493,000 people as of Jan. 29, with about 81,320 having received a vaccine.

But the app, Othena, has gotten bad reviews. Residents say its interface is unfriendly, with bugs that have resulted in people being improperly scheduled for appointments.

“It’s a disaster. It’s a total mess,” said Suzanne Haggerty, 60.

Haggerty, who has severe asthma, scheduled a vaccination through Othena, drove 45 minutes from her home to the vaccination site at Disneyland and spent two hours standing in line with her appointment and barcode in hand. She was turned away once she got to the front. A glitch in the app had cleared her for an appointment available only to those 65 and older. Staffers told her that about 50 people a day were being turned away for the same reason.

Still, some tech companies are confident they can ameliorate the scheduling fiasco.

Zocdoc, a web platform founded in 2007 to bring patients in for last-minute appointments with doctors, built a pilot program with New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital late last year for scheduling COVID vaccinations for hospital staffers. Now the company has begun a partnership with the Chicago city government to offer its vaccine scheduler tool -- free -- to care organizations and public health agencies, said Zocdoc founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz. His company’s years of experience with scheduling software is a huge advantage, he said.

Zocdoc is the main platform for Chicago residents to make vaccination appointments free of charge, aggregating real-time appointment openings from various vaccination sites and care organizations. But vaccine supplies and shipments are out of his control, Kharraz said.

“I want to make the following disclaimer,” he said. “The vaccines, per se, are in short supply. So, I think Chicagoans should expect limited availability.”

This article was first posted to Kaiser Health News.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.