Software glitch gives 600 people more shot slots in Gig Harbor than there is vaccine
Because of a software glitch, at least 600 people who thought they had appointments will have to be turned away from a Gig Harbor pop-up vaccination clinic planned for this weekend, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department said Thursday.
The faulty software also sent dozens of people to the vaccination site on the wrong day.
Steve Metcalf, a TPCHD communications specialist confirmed the problems and said that efforts were underway to clear up the issues.
“There was a glitch in the software that instead of putting Saturday’s as the date of the clinic it put today’s date. So the correct time, but the wrong date,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf said a “handful of people” showed up at Chapel Hill Church and had to be turned away, though they will be able to get their scheduled appointment for Saturday.
More slots than shots
Approximately 600 other people won’t be so lucky, as they were given appointments that now won’t be available.
“Again a technical glitch with our software that did not cut off the registration after the allotted slots had been filled,” Metcalf said. “We had fewer than 700 slots available, but the software allowed people to continue to register even after those slots had been filled.”
The clinic is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 30 at Chapel Hill Church, 7700 Skansie Ave., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
People eligible for the vaccine are those in Phase 1-A and 1-B-1 (people 65 and over OR over 50 living in a multi-generational household). Pre-registration was required and was completely full within minutes of opening Thursday.
Laura Pettitt, Gig Harbor’s tourism and marketing director, said the social media links for signups were posted at 9 a.m. Thursday, and all slots were filled by 9:19 a.m. Pettitt said other Gig Harbor clinics will be scheduled.
Overbooked people got emails
Metcalf said the people who were overbooked have been sent emails letting them know they will no longer have appointments, though he acknowledged people may still show up expecting to be vaccinated.
“We completely understand that this is not ideal,” he said. “Knowing the interest and the high demand and the eagerness that many many people have shown in getting the vaccine this is not this in any way how we wanted this to go. We regret that this happened. We apologize to the people who were inconvenienced by these two glitches. We are making improvements as we move along.”
Metcalf said there will be additional opportunities for people to get vaccines as this weekend’s clinic is “just the first of many.”
“This is an unprecedented effort, not just here but across the country, to roll out this large-scale vaccination of the public and there are some things that have unfortunately not gone to plan,” Metcalf said. “We are trying to make it right and our goal is to have a smooth and efficient registration process for everyone who is eligible.”
There also are plans in the works to reach people who are less savvy when it comes to using technology and that there may soon be an option to call in on the phone for an appointment.
Metcalf said the software used for registration, JotForms, was being used for the time being, and that “for future registration, we’re still considering all options to provide the best registration experience for the public.” This was the second time the software had been used.
The Department of Health had announced Wednesday that the mass vaccination clinics are for Washington residents and workers only, due to the scarcity of the vaccine.
Balky website, too
Hugh Pratt is an anesthesiologist living in GH with his 81-year-old mother-in-law who has health problems. Pratt already got his two-dose vaccine, but had been hoping to get his mother-in-law the first dose vaccine this weekend.
“My wife and I are both in our mid-50s and she’s 81 with health problems. We’ve got nine-year-old twins and we can’t send the twins to school because of inadequate vaccination for my wife and my mother-in-law,” Pratt said.
Pratt said he had signed up by email to get notified about the pop-up vaccination clinic but never got an email about registration for the Gig Harbor site, only hearing about the ability to sign up late Wednesday from news reports.
Pratt said he then woke up with his family early Thursday morning though only saw information about where to register at 9 a.m. All spots were filled by 9:19.
“It was like concert tickets. We were on our devices, ready to go. She had a phone, I had a phone, I had my desktop computer,” Pratt said. “We were using all three devices trying to get into that link right at 9 o’clock right as soon it showed up and it kept sending us to this non-scheduling page that had nothing to do with scheduling.”
Pratt wasn’t able to get a vaccine appointment for his mother-in-law. He sent an email to Pierce County Council Chair Derek Young expressing these concerns.
“Everything that Hugh mentioned there is a 100 percent spot on,” Young said. “I can certainly understand the frustration.”
Young said that changes were already in the works.
“The software that they’ve been using, JotForms, clearly isn’t up to the task so they’re changing that registration system right now,” Young said. “Hopefully it will not be an issue for future events.”
Young didn’t know what the new software would be but hoped it would be a better fit.
Young said that anyone who had concerns or comments about the process could reach out to him personally.
“Right now we just have a real shortage of vaccines versus demand. I know that’s incredibly frustrating. I want folks to get it as quickly as they can,” Young said. “We didn’t know we would be running these mass vaccinations clinics until fairly recently, so there are obviously some logistic challenges. Hopefully we get those ironed out very quickly.”
The rollout of the vaccine was a plan largely left to states and local counties which Young has said required leaning on the department of emergency management.
Young said he knows people want to get back to their lives and said that “staff will be working hard to get it right for the next time.”
Stephanie Dunkel, TPCHD assistant division director of communicable disease, responded to the registration complaints in a blog post late Thursday evening.
“We know you’ve waited a long time for this. And with vaccine supplies limited and a long list of people who want to be vaccinated, we expect there will be more bumps in the road,” Dunkel said. “But we promise to work as hard as we can to provide a smoother process going forward.”
Reach Chase Hutchinson at chase.hutchinson@thenewstribune.com
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 4:25 PM.
