Holy Cross Health said on Saturday that more than 2,000 people who are not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine signed up after staff members qualified for the vaccine mistakenly encouraged friends and family to get the vaccine.
Kristin Feliciano, Santa Cruz’s director of strategy, wrote in a statement on Saturday that Santa Cruz is in the process of vaccinating group 1A, which includes hospital workers, medical providers, first responders and residents and nursing home employees.
Feliciano wrote that the hospital system, which includes hospitals in Silver Spring and Germantown, sent an e-mail on Wednesday to all “colleagues and active medical staff” with a link where they could apply for a vaccine vacancy via PrepMod – an online system the state uses to schedule appointments.
“This email was intended for group 1a – all of our colleagues and active medical staff,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, one or many forwarded his e-mail to friends and family and now it is circulating in the community at large. More than 2,000 community members have applied for vacancies for our healthcare professionals, for which they should never be eligible. ”
Feliciano said in an interview with Bethesda Beat that registration emails were marked “this is for you”, but did not explicitly say not to share it with others.
“I think we are learning a lesson that we should put ‘no ahead’ in our stuff,” she said.
Feliciano said that the leaders of Santa Cruz took note of what was happening on Friday.
“We didn’t realize it was so big until we were able to enter the state’s PrepMod system. That’s how we realized that, for Monday’s clinic, we had more than 600 people registered and only 158 of them were our colleagues, ”she said.
Feliciano said similar problems with healthcare professionals who are eligible for the vaccine, sharing information on how to apply it to friends and family have also been reported in Howard County.
Feliciano wrote in his statement on Saturday that Santa Cruz is alerting the community with e-mails and social media, and is working with the state and PrepMod to cancel consultations for which those who are not entitled to the vaccine are signed up.
“We understand and appreciate the community’s anxiety about getting vaccinated. We are working with city and state authorities to support this vaccination when the time comes, ”she wrote.
Dan Schere can be reached at [email protected]