Hours after launching their respective COVID-19 vaccination offers on Thursday, two of California’s largest health care providers were flooded with a bustle of anxious vaccine seekers, who pushed their systems to the breaking point and raised questions about readiness in the state.
The Sutter Health website crashed and Kaiser Permanente’s phone line warned callers they could stare at up to four hours of waiting time, leaving many of the seniors in the state confused and frustrated.
The strong demand for the limited life-saving stock comes because California and its largest health care providers are seeking to accelerate the administration of the vaccines to people at greatest risk of dying.
Provincial government officials on Wednesday ranked 43rd in the country for the slow pace of vaccination, but people aged 65 and over will be eligible to receive the vaccine earlier than previously planned, although to individual suppliers of provinces and health care is to decide. how quickly they open appointments for certain age groups and phases of the general public.
Sutter Health, which also owns the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, on Thursday morning launched vaccinations for at least 75-year-old Californians and health workers. Those eligible to receive their first dose are allowed to make appointments through Sutter’s call center or through the healthcare provider’s My Health Online portal.
But most of the afternoon, many online users could not reach the Sutter Health website.
Those who were able to reach the homepage, even if only briefly, were greeted with a message that read: ‘System Notice: Due to the huge demand for vaccination, My Health Online and our call center may be temporarily offline or slow.’
“Please do not call your care website or service provider office to plan. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues, ”it continues.
Later in the afternoon, Sutter’s phone number for vaccinations reached his “calling capacity,” and a survey sent patients to his website for scheduling, which was apparently underway again.
Theresa Carey, 65, of Palo Alto, switched back and forth from the Sutter website to the mobile app all day, trying to get her and her husband a coveted date. And when she finally managed to sign up late on Thursday afternoon and go through the appointment questionnaire, she realized Sutter had only opened appointments for members of the general public, who are 75 years and older – not 65.
“We were excited,” Carey said. “… It just sounds like they’re trying to get everything together.”
In a statement, Sutter said it would increase suitability and notify its patients as vaccine supply and appointments grow. Until then, the healthcare provider is asking patients to be patient.
“We share in the excitement and hope that comes with the COVID-19 vaccine and work very hard to meet the scheduled patients’ scheduling requests,” the statement said.
Patricia S. (75), from Dublin, said it took her about an hour of perseverance to successfully get far on the Sutter website to book an appointment after it kicked her off the page several times and her submitted error messages.
“I thought, ‘I can ride this horse to the barn, I can keep doing it,'” she said.
While saying that it was not a difficulty for someone her age with a little free time to make an appointment, she added that Sutter, being such a great healthcare provider, ‘should do better’ .
Kaiser Permanente, which has opened a limited supply of appointments for Californians 65 and older, health care workers and long-term care patients and staff, faced similar problems with the four-hour wait times on its appointment phone line.
Nancy Thomas, 77, of Newark, waited more than an hour before getting an appointment with Kaiser to receive her first dose of life-saving vaccine.
The Kaiser representative she spoke to initially offered her an appointment at a San Leandro plant, but the agent told her that the reservation had disappeared while she was viewing, probably caught by another person. After searching for the next available nearby appointment, he found a spot for late next week in Kaiser Santa Clara.
“I would have waited five hours because it’s so important to me to get the vaccine,” Thomas said in an interview. “I think as the word gets out, they will be even more overwhelmed.”
Kaiser currently allows patients to sign up for appointments by telephone, but plans to have an online self-service portal in place by next week to give eligible people the opportunity to schedule an appointment online if vaccinations are available, according to a statement from the company.
“It is understandable that the current limited stock of vaccine may cause frustration among those eligible to be vaccinated, but we are hopeful that the stock will increase and enable us to vaccinate more people faster,” the statement said. .
In addition to the major health care providers in the Bay, people have also experienced problems with health departments in the country.
When Mel and Phil Epps, of Lafayette, received an e-mail from the Department of Health in Contra Costa County on Thursday morning informing them that they could make an appointment to receive their vaccine, they were delighted and immediately jumped on their computers.
They each went through their questionnaires on their own devices and received a notification that they had both been given a slot.
But all was not well.
Mel (77) was booked for an appointment in San Pablo, while Phil (80) had one in Martinez. Mel was nervous about the long drive to an unfamiliar area and called various health numbers for the health department for about an hour without getting any luck.
“They had a year more to set things up, and they’re already having problems with the system,” he said.
“Let’s just say it did nothing good for my blood pressure.”