Boston City Councilman Matt O’Malley has tried get the word, to give tips and advice on ingredients on a helpful hospital website (bmc.org/covid-19-vaccine-locations) and phone number (617-638-9620) at Boston Medical Center. O’Malley’s 70-year-old aunt and other voters, who were initially frustrated by the state’s website, were able to use this information to get vaccinated recently. People must be Boston residents and are currently eligible for a chance to access an appointment via this website or number, which links them to a BMC location in Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale or Dorchester.
“I had a number of elderly people come to me for help,” O’Malley said. “I was so impressed with the approach to Boston’s old medical center – they have a website, but also a phone number.”
At the state’s largest healthcare system, General Mass Brigham, leaders say they are eligible for groups by email among their 1.8 million patients that contain electronic ‘tickets’ that contain a personal link to sign up. Mass General Brigham is targeting for the first time patients in communities worst affected by infections, but also reaching out to a wider extent.
Unlike the state’s website, where available slots seem to evaporate in an instant, these invitations do not disappear so quickly, said dr. Tom Sequist, head of patient experience and equity at MGB, said.
“We try to make sure you get a lock when you reach out to them,” Sequist said. But he encourages patients to act as quickly as possible, because if they wait longer than 21 days, the slot may be gone. The system will also send patients with a link, as more people tend to use cell phones with Internet access than computers, Sequist said.
Mass General Brigham’s eligible patients can also register for available slots on the system’s patient gateway, a portal that gives patients access to their records and other types of appointments. The portal began making COVID vaccine appointments available at Assembly Row in Somerville on March 3, but more appointments are expected in other days at other MGB locations in the coming days.
Mike Festa, director of AARP Massachusetts, which advocates for government officials on behalf of senior residents, said he was relieved to hear that hospitals are aggressively stepping forward to reach people because his organization has heard of many frustrated seniors.
“There is a percentage of people who have just given up,” Festa said. “That’s my biggest concern.”
Festa, who is over 65 and eligible for a shot, spent hours searching on his laptop, cell phone and iPad at the same time and also came up short.
At Beth Israel Lahey Health, the start begins next week.
‘We have the capacity to vaccinate 14,000 patients [a week] for first dose appointments and that will be our running pace going forward, ”said Peter Shorett, who is leading the system’s initiative.
BI Lahey, which counts 1.6 million patients, also first focuses on color communities and those hardest hit by the virus, but also randomly sends emails and texts to its other qualifying patients with links to sign up. And for those who only have landlines, the system sends voicemails that send patients to a helpline to register.
UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester expects to double the number of vaccinations it delivers next week, from about 300 to 600, with 60 percent of those reserved for patients of the system, and the rest available to the state website. The system, with 400,000 patients, is also reaching the email.
But for people who are too bad to wait until their healthcare system connects with them, there are a plethora of new, free services emanating from groups of technical gurus who will send an SMS or email alert if there is a survey is available. at the location of the user’s preference. Some, like Massachusetts Covid Vaccination Help, find and book appointments for people. Others are websites, such as MACovidVaccines.com, that search for and find available openings, and users can then sign in.
The sites are not related to the official system of the state, and officials have discouraged consumers from using such “unauthorized, unofficial resources”.
One of the newest entrants is a service called MA Covid Vaccine Finder, which has been developed by three Beverly sisters, it keeps it simple. Users provide their name and email, and the system emails with open appointments.
The co-founders, Lilla Gabrieli (23), and her sisters, Polly (24) and Abigail (26), were frustrated when their mother could not make an appointment on February 18, the day the state system collapsed when nearly a million people, 65 years old. to 74, and those with underlying health conditions, were eligible and distributed the site.
By the evening, Lilla Gabrieli, a master’s student in computer science, had designed a program to quickly search the state’s website and find slots. Her mother, using the system, got an appointment for the next day. So Gabrieli posted an offer on Facebook to help other friends and families and things that snowed from there. The sister said it is growing from 500 to more than 2,000 requests for help.
They have built a website and say that they are refining their program to better shoot the user’s preferred positions.
“We make sure that when people do not fit in best, we respond to it,” Gabrieli said. “We let them know that they are not alone. We are real people behind the scenes and we try our best to help people across the state. ‘
Kay Lazar can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKayLazar.