Kaiser Permanente employees apologized on Friday to their members for the long waiting time of the call center in the past few days, since the state’s coronavirus vaccine eligibility was expanded to those aged 65 and over.
The limited supply of vaccines has challenged healthcare professionals across the state. Sutter Health’s website crashed for a while and other providers added automated messages to explain the process in response to great interest.
Kaiser’s call centers are overloaded with members who want to schedule vaccination appointments. Kaiser officials told The Chronicle that “they do not have enough vaccine stock available to meet even a fraction of that demand”.
A Kaiser call center alone received “four times the normal call volume” on Thursday, said Carrie Owen Plietz, president of the Northern California region for Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser’s vaccine hotline received more than 90,000 calls on Thursday, a significant increase from 38,000 calls on Tuesday, Kaiser officials told The Chronicle newspaper in a statement on Friday.
Kaiser members complained on social media about being put on hold for hours, sometimes without scheduling a vaccination appointment.
A few days after state officials expanded eligibility to include residents 65 and older – representing 1.4 million Kaiser members in California – Kaiser officials went straight to their members on Twitter on Friday.
“The supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is limited and unpredictable”, Kaiser employees said on Twitter. “The recent expansion of eligibility by the state to include individuals over the age of 65 has not yet brought an additional offer.”
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Kaiser officials said they have been receiving a weekly average of about 20,000 first and second doses since early December, but until the vaccine supply increases, it will take “several months” to vaccinate all Kaiser members aged 65 and over. in California with both doses.
Speaking of a South Bay Kaiser facility during a press conference with the Mayor of San Francisco London Breed on Friday, Owen Plietz thanked Kaiser members for their patience – joking that she is trying to piece together a little of her own challenge ” changing situation during the pandemic, combined with limited vaccine supplies.
“A vaccination effort of this size is new for all of us. We also want to recognize the frustration that many of you are feeling when trying to get vaccinated or understand when they can and when they should be vaccinated, ”said Owen Plietz. “New information often comes in a few hours, days, and we are working hard to bring vaccines to everyone in this extraordinary and confusing time.”
Owen Plietz said that Kaiser has been vaccinating health professionals, according to the California phased approach, and until Friday, Kaiser gave the first dose of vaccines to more than 90,000 health professionals. That number is “increasing every day and every hour,” she said.
Kaiser said it had administered a total of 120,000 injections in California as of Friday. Owen Plietz said that Kaiser vaccinated more than 9,000 health professionals who are not Kaiser Permanente employees and more than 1,600 people who are also not members of Kaiser Permanente “because our role is to work as part of the community to ensure everyone is vaccinated. “
“We are committed to ensuring that we act as quickly as possible to provide the vaccine to those who are eligible and soon to everyone who wants to receive it,” said Owen Plietz.
Kaiser officials said they expected “large deliveries in the coming weeks” as “production ramps by manufacturers”.
Kaiser officials said they took steps to “alleviate the situation as we work on more ways to increase access to vaccines as the offer allows”, such as: increasing staff in a 24-hour call center; inform members who call the line that vaccine markings are not available; planning to add an option next week for eligible members to schedule a vaccination appointment “based on vaccine supplies”; contact eligible members with vaccination information; and employees are coordinating with local and state agencies to create mass vaccine sites and “reach out to the most vulnerable in our communities”.
“But we need more vaccines before they can be opened,” Kaiser officials said in a statement to The Chronicle.
Lauren Hernández is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ByLHernandez