Many Portland area seniors aged 70 and over found a very slow site and major flaws on Monday as they unsuccessfully tried to schedule COVID-19 vaccination appointments at one of the area’s two mass vaccination sites.
Some elderly residents reported that it took from a few minutes to more than half an hour to load the scheduling pages. And when they accessed these pages and clicked on the available service hours, they were informed that the appointments had already been made. This meant that they would have to start the lengthy process of reloading the pages and start the booking process again.
All online consultations available to the Oregon Convention Center and the Portland International Airport drive-through clinic were attended to right in the first hour, frustrating the elderly who, in some cases, took complaints directly to state lawmakers.
Tamara Hargens-Bradley, a spokeswoman for vaccination sites, acknowledged several challenges on Monday – including a mistake that allowed people to make appointments in advance and left others empty-handed.
The “appointment scheduling tools didn’t crash this morning; however, they decreased as they approached maximum capacity: 4,800 simultaneous users each, ”she said in an email on Monday afternoon.
Hargens-Bradley said technicians “have repairs implemented or in progress to improve the stability of the site and the user experience in the future” on the days when bookings are open for reservation in the future.
Health care providers operating the Portland area mass vaccination sites said at the end of last week that 2,400 appointments would be available at the airport and 4,900 at the Convention Center beginning Monday at 9am for seniors and phase 1a members, which mainly includes health professionals.
But Oregon residents who went online earlier were rewarded – and those who were not left out.
Hargens-Bradley said the Oregon Health & Science University website mistakenly opened the 2,400 airport appointments at 8:45 am. All consultations ended at 9:20 am, if not earlier.
“OHSU apologizes for the error and has taken steps to ensure that appointments are released at 9 am on Mondays and Thursdays, as scheduled,” said Hargens-Bradley.
The two mass vaccination sites are operated through a joint effort by OHSU, Legacy Health, Kaiser Permanente and Providence Health & Services.
Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, D-Portland and a doctor conducted a legislative meeting on Monday exploring how to improve the implementation of vaccination in Oregon.
“Today was a challenging day for the elderly in Oregon who had access to the Internet and even more difficult for those who don’t and who are over 70,” said Dexter, starting the meeting. “The sites were confusing, the systems lagging behind and the phone lines overloaded. I am listening to many of you today. “
This was the fifth morning that the two locations opened appointments for scheduling since seniors aged 80 and over became eligible on February 8. Monday was the first day that residents aged 70 and over were given the green light to try to schedule appointments – and this created a colossal traffic jam.
Demand far exceeds supply. The number of seniors in the Portland area who are competing for nominations is unclear, but across the state about 300,000 Oregon seniors were eligible before Monday and the number has grown by about 212,000 with the inclusion of people aged between 70 and 74 years.
Each week, the competition for nominations gets tougher. It is expected to intensify further when next Monday more than 255,000 seniors aged 65 to 69 become eligible.
Last week, state officials said 146,000 Oregon residents aged 65 or older – many of them living in congregated and already qualified settings – received at least one injection.
Bill Edwards, 74, said he tried on Monday three times to make an appointment online, but every time he tried to schedule the next web page it didn’t load.
“I did it three times and gave up,” said Edwards, who lives in unincorporated Washington County. He checked local pharmacies and called 211, but again found nothing, he said.
He plans to go online again on Thursday, next Monday and so on, until he gets an appointment.
“If I had an appointment in a month, it would be fine,” said Edwards. But he knows that next week the group will only grow and his chances will decrease.
“It’s like putting more water in a small funnel,” he said.
State public health officials said that, based on recent federal government vaccine shipment allocations, they expect 75% of Oregon residents age 65 and older will have received their first dose in early April. They estimate that 75% will be able to receive a second dose in early May.
Stephanie Hooper, representing the non-profit group Age +, which defends the elderly, testified before the legislative committee on Monday. She referred to Oregon’s humble status in administering vaccines to the elderly – the third from the last, according to an analysis by The Oregonian / OregonLive last week.
She offered a list of suggestions for improvement. This includes addressing the problems created by the rapid opening of eligibility to new groups of seniors each week before previous age groups had a chance to schedule. Hooper said the state should “pause” older people under 75 years of scheduling appointments until older people have access to vaccines.
But Hooper expressed little hope that the state will hear.
“Honestly, we and other advocates for older adults have offered to help and alert the authorities to these potential challenges since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Hooper, “but virtually none of our suggestions have been implemented.”
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee