Holy Cross Health said on Saturday that more than 2,000 people who were not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine enrolled after staff members who were eligible for the vaccine wrongly encouraged friends and family to get the vaccine.
Kristin Feliciano, chief strategy officer for Holy Cross, wrote in a statement on Saturday that Holy Cross is inoculating Group 1A, which includes hospital workers, medical providers, first responders and residents and nursing homes and employees.
Feliciano wrote that the hospital system, which includes hospitals in Silver Spring and Germantown, sent an email to all ‘colleagues and active medical staff’ on Wednesday with a link where they could report a vaccination period through PrepMod – an online system of the state used to plan appointments.
“The email is intended for group 1a – all our colleagues and active medical staff,” she wrote. ‘Unfortunately, one or more of them sent their emails to friends and family and now it is floating around in the wider community. More than 2000 members of the community have signed up for places that are meant for our health workers and for which they would never have to be eligible. ”
Feliciano said in an interview with Bethesda Beat that the sign-up emails were marked “it’s meant for you” but did not explicitly say not to share it with others.
“I assume we’re learning a lesson we should ‘do not present’ about our things,” she said.
Feliciano said leaders of the Holy Cross became aware of what happened Friday.
“We did not realize it was as big as it was before we could get into the state’s PrepMod system. “This is how we realized that we had more than 600 people for the clinic on Monday, and only 158 of them were our colleagues,” she said.
Feliciano said similar problems with health care workers eligible for the vaccine, which shares information about registering with friends and family, have also been reported in Howard County.
Feliciano wrote in her statement on Saturday that Holy Cross is notifying the community via email and via social media and is working with the state and PrepMod to cancel appointments for which those who are not eligible for the vaccine.
“We understand and are grateful for the community’s eagerness to be vaccinated. We are working with provincial and government officials to support the vaccination when it comes, ”she wrote.
Dan Schere can be reached at [email protected]