Faulty Software Snarls Vaccine Sign-Ups
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesRisk Near YouVaccine RolloutGuidelines After VaccinationAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFaulty Software Snarls Vaccine Sign-UpsHealth departments continue to grapple with delays caused by technical problems with numerous websites used for making appointments.Awaiting shots in Richmond, Va. Health departments around the country continue to face delays giving vaccines, in part because of flawed appointment software like that used in Richmond.Credit…Carlos Bernate for The New York TimesMarch 12, 2021Updated 9:26 a.m. ETWhen coronavirus vaccines first became available, state health officials in Virginia turned to software recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to schedule appointments. But people complained that the software, called VAMS, was too confusing for older adults to use.So the state switched to another system, PrepMod — but that had problems, too. Links sent to seniors for their appointments were reusable and found their way to Facebook, leading to one vaccination event in Richmond with dozens of overbookings. Some of those people threatened health care workers when they were turned away.“It was a nightmare scenario,” said Ruth Morrison, the policy director for the Richmond and Henrico County health district. “People showing up confused, irate, thinking they had an appointment.”State and local health departments around the country continue to face delays dispensing shots, in part because flaws remain in the appointment software tools like those used in Richmond. The problems threaten to slow the vaccine rollout even as supplies and distribution are picking up quickly across the country.Large software systems have often been problematic for companies and governments. HealthCare.gov, a site released after the Affordable Care Act, crashed early on. But the issues with the vaccine sites have an added sense of urgency because health officials are trying to vaccinate as many people as possible, as fast as possible.On Thursday, President Biden said that his administration would send out technical teams to help states improve their websites. He also said the federal government would open a website by May 1 that would allow Americans to find out where the vaccine is available.Many state officials have switched software providers, only to see little or no improvement. In California, tech mishaps have allowed ineligible people to snatch up appointments. Massachusetts residents have been stymied by crashing websites. Some North Carolina residents are eschewing online sign-ups entirely, instead engaging in a vaccine free-for-all.PrepMod is being used by 28 states and localities, after many states shunned the $44 million VAMS tool built by Deloitte. Salesforce and Microsoft have developed vaccine software, too, with their customers being similarly frustrated. Smaller tech companies have pitched their own scheduling tools as well.“Some of these systems have strengths, but they all have weaknesses, too,” said Ruth Morrison, the policy director for the Richmond and Henrico County health district.Credit…Carlos Bernate for The New York Times“It’s like a patchwork quilt,” said Ms. Morrison, who decided after the failed PrepMod trial that her county would try something else. “Some of these systems have strengths, but they all have weaknesses, too.”Other health officials have defended the appointment systems, and the developers behind the software said the complaints about their products were overblown.Tiffany Tate, PrepMod’s creator and the executive director of the Maryland Partnership for Prevention, said criticisms of her system largely stemmed from health providers’ lack of knowledge about how to use it, or from the constantly shifting needs of states.“The pandemic’s evolving, and we’ve got to be able to keep up with it,” she said. “We just have to be a very flexible platform.”Deloitte, whose software is used by nine states, said VAMS was originally intended for smaller groups at early stages of states’ vaccine rollouts, so the company was “responding quickly to meet their changing needs” and was updating the system to handle a greater load.Health experts say multiple factors complicated the software rollout. In some cases, developers condensed work that would normally take years into weeks, leading to glitches. In addition, the varied approaches to determining eligibility in the dozens of localities using the software have made it difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all approach.Some states use more than half a dozen appointment scheduling systems, from tools used by federal, state and local agencies to the software employed by private hospitals and pharmacies to rudimentary solutions like SignUpGenius. Some sites do not support appointment scheduling at all, but allow people to browse databases to find available vaccines or get on wait lists. Often, the systems cannot communicate with one another.At one vaccination event in Richmond intended for older adults, dozens of people who had re-used appointment links showed up, overbooking the event.Credit…Carlos Bernate for The New York Times“You’re basically building and testing data systems on the fly as millions of people are trying to find vaccines,” said Claire Hannan, the executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, which advocates for state health departments.The Coronavirus Outbreak
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